Liverpool’s John Lennon airport has said there is no threat to passenger safety after scores of holidaymakers had to be rescreened because of a faulty security scanner.
Dozens of passengers were told to leave the busy airport’s departure lounge following a technical glitch with a passenger scanning machine on Friday afternoon. The fault meant people had to be rescreened before being allowed to return airside.
An airport spokesman said: “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 rescreened. There is no threat to passenger safety with this rescreening process necessary in order to ensure security compliance.”
Some passengers were reportedly told to leave planes after the security alert at about noon.
One traveller, Steph Hodson, told the Liverpool Echo: “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.”
