It follows a number of separate bomb threats to flights in the last week
A Sallins man who was onboard a flight diverted yesterday (5 November) due to a bomb threat, has shared his experience of the events.
Aer Lingus flight EI 402 from Dublin to Rome was one of nearly 30 flights impacted by hoax bomb alerts across Europe yesterday.
It follows a number of separate bomb threats to flights in the last week.
Speaking on Kildare Today, he said everything was "perfect" in the lead-up to the diversion:
"Absolutely perfect, beautiful smooth flight, nothing was wrong at all, and [I was] really enjoying it."
He admitted it felt "unusual" 90 minutes into the flight, when the pilot called for a member of the cabin crew to speak to him "immediately".
Following this, an announcement was made that there was a technical issue with the plane, and that a landing would have to be made.
Eventually, passengers were notified of the bomb threat, pending an emergency landing at a French military base.
"It was only when we landed and looked around and there was nothing around, you knew you were at an army base, there was crews of fire brigade ambulances and military with guns, it got very surreal at that stage.
"We were sitting there for about two hours I think, waiting and not knowing what was happening, to be fair, the Captain was totally honest with us, we were told we couldn't move off the plane until the bomb squad arrives," he added.
After leaving Sallins at 2:30am yesterday morning (5 November), he finally arrived at his Rome hotel this morning at 1:30am, after a turbulent journey to get there.
Also speaking on the Kildare Today show was Defence and Security Analyst Declan Power, who believes that it's important that complacency doesn't creep in when it comes to these threats:
"If you have a degree of complacency creep in, then you have people with the temptation to get one device in, maybe not even onto an aircraft but just somewhere in the vicinity, think of the panic and confusion and lack of confidence in the aviation industry that that would engender.
"We have to take into account that when a threat is made, it has to have a proportionate and responsible reaction to it," he concluded.
The full interview can be heard below:
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