Adelaide Airport security screening breach forces evacuation

Delays sparked by a security breach at Adelaide Airport are now clearing after an evacuation alert this morning.

Operations at Adelaide Airport are returning to normal after the main terminal was evacuated because of human error in screening a handful of passengers.

Thousands of people had to be re-screened through Adelaide Airport security after 10 people on a Kingscote flight were found to have not been properly processed on arrival.

Adelaide Airport executive general manager Dermot O’Neill said the decision to evacuate the main terminal was taken “swiftly” when the passengers were unable to be located.

“We were unable to locate those 10 passengers and when we couldn’t be confident of doing that, we took the decision that for the security of the airport, we needed to re-screen everyone who was in the terminal at that time,” Mr O’Neill said.

“(It was) certainly disruptive to our passengers and our customers who were here at that time, certainly apologise for the disruption and the delay caused to them this morning.”

Passengers arriving from Kingscote – which is an unscreened airport – are generally processed through an area on the ground floor near the baggage claim section and taken through security on arrival.

Some flights have been delayed up to 20 minutes. Picture: Tara Miko. Picture: Tara Miko

But that did not occur on Monday, triggering the terminal evacuation, subsequently causing flight delays of two hours for some passengers.

Mr O’Neill said the passengers did not do anything wrong.

“It was a result of human error that has caused this incident,” he said.

“Passengers that arrive into Adelaide from regional areas who are unscreened – that is, they haven’t gone through a security screening process at the airport they are departing – are required to be screened before they can enter the main area of Adelaide Airport.

“Ordinarily that sees them arrive into the area down near where the baggage carousels are.”

The heavy delays are the second attributed to human error in the past fortnight after Adelaide Airport was hit hard by the CrowdStrike outage triggered by a forced upgrade to Microsoft platforms.

Mr O’Neill said an investigation into the breach was underway.

He said about 15 flights had been delayed, impacting about 1500 passengers.

Re-screening started about an hour after the breach was detected, and the pre-screening area was chaotic as passengers lined up.

Passengers on imminent flights were being given priority screening in an effort to make their flights, as hundreds more people arrived for their trips.

A security breach has plunged Adelaide Airport into chaos, causing thousands of passengers to be evacuated from the main terminal. Travellers are being warned to brace for flight delays. #7NEWSpic.twitter.com/u10uHaTjqm

— 7NEWS Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) July 29, 2024

Travellers who were inside the terminal said there was an evacuation message being played over the loudspeaker but there was no panic.

Most simply exited the terminal to the luggage drop-off and check-in area and awaited instructions.

Some flights were delayed by about 20 minutes to interstate destinations.

The security breach was detected about 11am Monday in the main terminal. It had cleared by about 1.30pm.

Passengers on imminent flights are being given priority screening. Picture: Tara Miko

Vicki Gkiokas had just arrived at the airport for her flight to Port Lincoln and was approaching the security screening when the message came across the loudspeaker for the terminal evacuation.

“We were about to go into the line when everyone had to be evacuated,” she said.

“And there was just police officers everywhere, and people from the airlines, they were just telling everyone to move out, go downstairs, go wherever.

“We didn’t know what was happening.”

Staff soon announced there had been a screening breach.

“So it wasn’t anything major, thank God,” Ms Gkiokas said.

Vicki Gkiokas was delayed at Adelaide Airport after the security breach. Picture: Tara Miko

“At the airport you think everything’s OK because they have top security here.

“So how can someone go through without getting screened properly? I don’t understand that.

“Whether they walked though while someone else was getting screened … it’s a little bit iffy but it was good that they saw that and everything was OK.”

Mr O’Neill said security took priority at airports.

“We take the security outcomes of Adelaide Airport very seriously,” he said.

“It’s important for us to understand that once they (the passengers) were in the screened area of the terminal and we hadn’t had the ability to maintain visual contact with those passengers that we did need to ask those people to re-screen the terminal.

“It’s certainly regrettable when we have an incident like this.”