EU asks Slovakia to explain explosives botch-up

BRUSSELS - The European Commission has confirmed it will be sending a letter to the government of Slovakia, seeking clarifications on a recent airport security botch-up that resulted in a man unwittingly carrying explosives from Slovakia into the Republic of Ireland.

"What we want to know from the Slovak authorities is what actually happened," said commission transport spokesman Fabio Pirotta on Friday (8 January).

Mr Pirotta said the EU executive was entitled to ask the questions as the flight with explosives onboard had taken place between two EU countries.

The bungled security exercise has resulted in the resignation of Slovakia's chief of border police, Tibor Mako, with the country's opposition parties also clamoring for the head of interior minister Robert Kalinak, currently standing steadfast.

Despite the resignation, Mr Kalinak insisted on Friday that the fiasco was the sole fault of a police dog-handler who forgot to remove one of two samples of explosives placed in a man's luggage as a test for sniffer dogs.

"It is clearly an individual error not a system failure. Disciplinary proceedings against the policemen responsible are underway," he said.

But a spokesman for Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said it "beggared belief" that the man had been allowed to board the flight, report Irish media.

Security operation turns into a shambles

A Slovakian security exercise last weekend saw police place eight contraband items on passengers at Bratislava and Poprad-Tatry airports in an attempt to test screening procedures.

Seven of the items were identified and removed before takeoff, but one flight with 96 grams of high-grade plastic explosives was allowed to depart for Dublin.

Slovak authorities say they quickly alerted officials in the Irish capital, but the Irish authorities say it was not until three days later that they warned about the explosives.

On Tuesday this week, Irish police cordened off the city-centre house of a Slovakian electrician living in Dublin while they searched for the explosives, later releasing the man without charge.

The incident comes amid heightened airport security following an attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a flight from the Netherlands to the United States on Christmas Day.