Reply to my complaint sent via Newsgroup
"Leicstershire Constabulary, and the Inspector who was in charge at EMA that day was kind enough to offer to speak to me to discuss what happened. The following points emerged:
1. The cause of the incident was a 'security alert' pertaining NOT toa specific flight but to all the passengers who passed through
security during a 'specific time period'. More facts about exactly
what happened will probably emerge in due course as this was a DoT/CAA 'reportable incident'.
2. This resulted in the need to 100% (bag search/pat down) rescreen around 1300 passengers. I think (but cannot recall precisely) it was said that the Ryanair flight was the only one affected that had actually departed - and it was only a few minutes from departure, ten minutes according to the Inspector.
3. The passengers from the Ryanair flight were kept together as a
group, as were the passengers for many other flights in other areas of the terminal. They weren't so much detained as being kept waiting as a group to pass through screening together.
4. With 1300 passengers to 100% rescreen, this process was ineveitably going to take a considerable time. The Police, in co-operation with the airport authority and the security people, tried to do this as expeditiously as possible. In particular, it became evident that some flights, due to takeoff slot availability and crew duty time availabilty, *were* going to be able to depart at something close to their scheduled time, and passengers from those flights were pushed to the front of the re-screening queue. Other flights were never going to make it due to no slot or crew running out of duty time, and were inevitably going to have to be cancelled. The passengers for those flights were delayed longer.
5. Someone was always going to be 'last in the queue' and on this occasion it was the Ryanair flight - bad luck. The Inspector was dubious about the time kept waiting, thought it would have been less than the quoted four hours.
6. The Inspector stated that he had no problem with refreshments being taken in to passengers being kept waiting, if Ryanair or the airport authority decided to do so. He wasn't prepared to let the passengers roam the terminal to get their own food, as it was essential to pushing people through security as fast as possible that the passengers from each flight be kept together. He freely confessed that providing refreshments for the passengers 'wasn't his highest priority', and given the three-ring circus he was running that day, I have some sympathy for him!
7. I still wonder why it wasn't possible, at some stage in the
proceedings, to move the Ryanair passengers, who *had* after all been waiting a long time, to a more central area of the terminal where they could be kept together but still access refreshments.
8. No instruction was issued concerning not allowing passengers to use the bathroom, or requiring them to escorted when doing so. It's possible that this was implemented by a lower-ranking officer in the Ryanair area, in response to a perceived concern that a weapon may have been sneaked through security and could be disposed of in the bathroom.
9. No formal complaints have been received as a result of this
incident.
10. The powers to detain/control the movement of passengers in this situation come from the fact that the passengers were airside, and thus subject to the laws concerning aviation/maritime security, and also were in a Customs controlled area. I'd need to bone up on the actual law to find the specific powers. "
Thoughts?
ShiftZZ