An Aer Lingus flight bound for Chicago with 330 passengers and crew was yesterday forced to return to Dublin airport following the discovery of a suspect package on board the plane.
Some 30 minutes after take-off at 3pm yesterday, a member of the cabin crew of flight EI125 alerted the captain to a beeping noise which appeared to be coming from an unlabelled box in an overhead compartment. As a precautionary measure, the captain chose to return to Dublin airport and made a normal landing at 4pm. Dublin Airport Authority alerted all emergency services to the scene.
Some 318 passengers and the 12-member crew were allowed to disembark and asked to wait in the terminal building for almost three hours while security personnel undertook an examination of the suspect package. A number of in-flight magazines were discovered in the box, behind which a piece of medical equipment which produced the ticking noise was discovered. The plane was then declared safe and the flight rescheduled for 5.30pm.
Yesterday's incident follows two other security alerts in the airport earlier this month.