Departure lounge of John Lennon Airport evacuated

Flights were delayed after a problem with one of the passenger security scanners.

airport evacuation john lennon liverpool security threat

Passengers at John Lennon Airport were evacuated this afternoon, with some being moved off planes and to the outside of the airport. The evacuation was the result of a technical issue with one of the passenger security scanners. The failure meant that all passengers had to be rescanned, and the departure lounge evacuated for security reasons.

The airport’s Head of PR & Communications, Robin Tudor stressed that there was no risk to passengers’ safety and the issue was “a technical problem with one of the scanning machines”. Tudor clarified that he did not think it was down to human error, but that the fault meant  thousands of passengers had to be evacuated from the lounge on a busy day. He also said:

“We are working with the airlines. Obviously there will be delays to flights but we are working as hard as we can to catch back up again and minimise disruption. Anyone travelling should contact their airlines in the first instance. They should still come to their airport but they should expect delays if their flights are due in the next few hours.”

 

Passengers have been urged to allow extra time through security given the large numbers of people going through.

Liverpool airport tweeted that there was no threat to safety:

The airport then released a statement:

“Due to a technical problem with one of the Airport’s passenger scanning machines, all passengers have been removed from the Departure Lounge and are currently in the process of being re-screened. There is no threat to passenger safety with this re-screening process necessary in order to ensure security compliance.”

One passenger, Steph Hodson, who was asked to move outside of the airport lounge said:

“I was meant to be travelling to Paris with my boyfriend for his birthday. We’d just sat down in the lounge and there was an announcement. The staff all looked quite flustered and we could see everyone outside. There’s hundreds of people. We’re going to have to go back through security and everything. It was quite scary and everyone was really quiet and looked worried. I’ve spoken to a police officer and they said it’s an issue to do with the security scanners, and we were moved for our own safety.”

Passengers have been urged to still turn up but to expect delays.