Details Revealed About 10 May's Security Disruption at Luxembourg Airport

On the morning of Wednesday 22 May 2024, a press conference took place at the Luxembourg Airport for a briefing on the technical incident that occurred on the morning of Friday 10 May 2024 and which led to several flight delays throughout the day.

Alexander Flassak, CEO of lux-Airport, Daniel Conrardy, Director of Security at lux-Airport and Ken Dechaize, Deputy Director and Divisional Commissioner of the Airport Police Unit were present for this press conference, following the incident which occurred two weeks ago on Friday. A malfunctioning metal detector required all passengers to undergo a second security check, disrupting flight schedules for around 800-1000 people.

Flights were unable to depart on the early hours as affected passengers were not able to board. According to Alexander Flassak, out of the 84 flights planned that day, 43 were delayed.

On the early morning of 10 May, the security staff at the airport noticed that a security passageway machine with an aleatory alarm system (according to certain specific quotas) did not light up after twelve individuals passed through. This alerted the staff after around eight minutes to remove it from use due to malfunction.

Although only twelve passengers had gone through the security check on Friday morning using the malfunctioning security passageway, Airport Police Commissioner Ken Dechaize noted that it was impossible to locate these passengers. Furthermore, the evacuation of the area was necessary as it had not been immediately clear whether anything “illegal” had been at play, Ken Dechaize noted. This way it could be avoided that anyone bring in dangerous items. The evacuation of the area in question took around 20 minutes and was done to ensure the safety of passengers, Alexander Flassak and Ken Dechaize both emphasised. He added that cooperation had been "good" and said it would be possible to “work faster” in the future.

The incident had been caused due to a power disruption which occurred during a cleaning intervention around midnight, Daniel Conrardy explained, highlighting that it had been unintentional. In fact, the security equipment had been checked on the evening of Thursday 9 May at 18:30 as per procedure, and everything had been in working order then, he noted. After the incident, an additional safety procedure was implemented, including a check of the security equipment in the morning and awareness-raising for the cleaning staff, following the occurrence, Daniel Conrardy concluded.