“An operational error on the part of the handling company Groundforce at Lisbon Airport led to the delay of 17 flights, so as not to compromise security,” ANA-Aeroportos de Portugal said in the statement.
“In an operation carried out by the company, some passengers were incorrectly disembarked from the TAP flight 1482 from Dakar.”
Once the error was detected, it added, “Immediately security measures [were] implemented by the PSP [police] and by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).”
Police evacuated the area and carried out security checks, while the SEF was asked temporarily to close the frontier in departures.
“All passengers on site were directed to passport control in arrivals,” the statement said.
According to ANA, the anomalous situation was detected at 7.10pm on Sunday, and operations at the airport were back to normal at 9.54pm, when “the frontier in departures was
reopened”.
The statement came after a source at the Ministry of Internal Administration told Lusa News Agency on Sunday that the problem arose when a bus carrying passengers to the terminal from a plane that had come in from Dakar left them at a gate in the part of the airport for passengers travelling from within Schengen - the European area in which there is free movement of people, with no passport checks..
The airport’s whole international section thus had to be sealed off for the authorities to be able to carry out checks on all arriving passengers.