Gardaí to travel to Slovakia in explosives inquiry
The Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak has already told Justice Minister Dermot Ahern that they would co-operate with the Garda inquiry. He also apologised to Mr Ahern.
The move comes amid mounting and conflicting reports as to what was done to inform relevant parties of the explosives, particularly in Ireland.
In a bizarre security operation, innocent Slovak man Stefan Gonda unwittingly carried commercial explosives through Dublin airport last Saturday after Slovak police placed them in his baggage, and that of other passengers, as part of a security test.
The Slovak airport police claimed they alerted the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) about the explosives by telex on Saturday.
The Slovak police also said they informed the captain of the Danube Wings flight to Dublin and that he decided to fly.
The DAA denied they receive a telex and said they were not alerted until Tuesday morning. It emerged yesterday that the telex had been sent to the baggage company Servisair.
A spokesman for Servisair last night confirmed they did receive a message on CITA – a secure communications system – but that it was not highlighted in any way.
“CITA is an internal communication system, mainly about flight departures. It was not marked urgent or danger. We get hundreds of these messages,” said the spokesman.
He said the airline should have rang them and alerted them to the seriousness of the message. He further said the captain should have told baggage staff on landing at Dublin of the situation.
There was also confusion over what happened in the security operation, why the explosives were not taken off the baggage and how it was allowed to be loaded onto a flight to Dublin.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has appointed Detective Chief Superintendent Martin McLaughlin to conduct an investigation.
Garda sources said he will establish what contact was made by Slovak police with Irish authorities. His team will take statements from relevant people here and compile a report, which may take a few weeks.
Sources also said it was likely Chief Supt McLaughlin and a senior detective will travel to Slovakia to talk to border police and other agencies.
Garda management are very unhappy that they were not informed of the explosives until Tuesday morning – three days later. They are also unhappy they only discovered this indirectly, when Slovak airport police rang the airport police at Dublin airport. The airport police are the security section of the DAA and are not part of the Garda Síochána.
Garda sources said there was a dedicated liaison section at Garda Headquarters which is the contact point for foreign police forces.
