Slovak police have apologised for a botched security test that sent a bomb to Ireland in the luggage of an unsuspecting air traveller, sparking a major security alert.
Officers planted two packages - one a dummy and the other containing explosives - in luggage at an airport in the northeastern city of Poprad to check airport security.
The explosives were successfully detected by sniffer dogs, but a police officer forgot to remove them, and they were inadvertently sent onto a plane heading for Dublin.
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"We are very sorry that a good effort to test the security of civilian air transport turned out so badly," said border police chief Tibor Mako.
The test was performed on Saturday as airports worldwide boosted security checks following an alleged attempt to set off a bomb on a plane heading to the US on Christmas Day.
Telex message warning
"The explosives were attached by accident to the backpack of a 49-year-old Slovak electrician, who unknowingly brought them to his flat in Dublin," Mako said.
He said the police officer failed to inform his superiors and only told Poprad airport, which sent Dublin airport a telex message alerting it to the potential problem on board the Danube Wings flight.
In a statement Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) insisted it had had "no contact whatsoever" from the Slovak side until Tuesday.
"When a telephone call in relation to the issue was received on Tuesday morning, the DAA immediately alerted the Gardai (police), who then investigated the matter," it said.
"None of the three addresses on the telex that was produced by Slovakian authorities today is a DAA address," it added.
But Mako said the Poprad airport used memorised addresses it normally uses to communicate with Dublin, and added that "if a message is not delivered, they receive a warning - but they didn't receive anything of that kind."
'Smuggler' arrested, released
Poprad airport's bosses were not available for comment.
Mako insisted the Slovaks should not bear all the blame, saying Dublin airport "failed to discover the explosives during the luggage check".
Sections of inner city Dublin were sealed off on Tuesday morning and homes and businesses evacuated as anti-terrorist police and Irish army bomb disposal experts raided the electrician's apartment.
They seized about 90 grammes of research development explosive (RDX) in the raid.
The unwitting smuggler - who has worked in Ireland for three years and was returning from a Christmas holiday in Slovakia - was arrested under anti-terrorist laws, and released without charge later that day.
Slovak police said Poprad airport immediately informed the pilot about the explosives on board, but he decided against an emergency landing.
"The plane and its passengers were actually in no danger as the explosives didn't have a detonator," Mako insisted.
Explosives 'a serious threat'
But Juraj Zabojnik, a former top Slovak security official, said that amount of explosives was a serious danger even without a detonator.
"The problem is that the explosives were allowed to leave Slovakia in the first place," he added.
Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak on Tuesday apologised to Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern for the failed test, his spokesman Erik Tomas said.
Tomas added the policeman would face "disciplinary proceedings" but it would be "unjust and inadequate" to sanction his superiors.
The blunder sparked outrage not only in Ireland, but also among Slovak human rights campaigners.
"Our privacy is being compromised in the name of the war on terrorism, but it's unacceptable to drag unsuspecting people into the police's security tests," said Sarlota Pufflerova, head of the Citizen and Democracy association.
