Minister orders Civil Aviation Authority review Wellington bomb scare after claims of mishandling

Associate Transport Minister James Meager has ordered the Civil Aviation Authority to review its handling of December's bomb scare at Wellington Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The minister in charge of aviation has ordered a review into the handling of a dummy bomb found in a person’s luggage at Wellington Airport.

On Monday, the Herald revealed staff discovered an inert military ordnance on December 27, but the airport did not evacuate and continued to operate as normal for nearly two hours before the Defence Force bomb squad gave the all clear.

The situation left one airport worker “gobsmacked”, claiming those in charge ignored proper protocol.

They said staff in the area should have been evacuated and bag screening and aircraft loading put on hold.

Wellington Airport and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the object never posed a risk, maintaining it did follow its processes, and an evacuation was not necessary.

Neither organisation would say what its protocol was in the event of a suspicious item being found, or what the threshold is for an evacuation.

A photo supplied to the Herald appears to show the aircraft training bomb detected in a passengers bag during screening at Wellington Airport.

The revelations have now caused Associate Minister of Transport James Meager to ask the CAA to review the incident.

“Aviation safety is always the top priority for myself and the Civil Aviation Authority,” Meager said.

He said the CAA has assured him the dummy bomb “did not pose a threat to the public, and the incident followed a standard security screening procedure”.

“However, I have asked the CAA to review this specific incident to confirm all procedures and systems in place are adequate, and report back to me.”

A CAA spokeswoman said it “debriefed with our partner agencies to identify any learnings” following the incident, in line with normal practice".

“We are completing our internal evaluation to implement those learnings,” the spokeswoman said, and the organisation would update the minister accordingly.

The NZDF bomb squad called in to assess the item established that while the “Aircraft Practice Bomb” would have had live components like a blasting cap and initiator when it was used in the past, it had since been made inert.

The NZDF spokeswoman said the practice bomb was filled with lead, “which matched the weight of a live bomb”.

The Aircraft Practice Bomb is a non-explosive dummy designed to replicate a lethal military explosive in training scenarios. They are banned on board commercial aircraft and police say they confiscated the device found at Wellington Airport.

“Everything that we train for, everything we do comes down to what happened on that day and they just totally ignored our procedure, our rules, everything about it, they just did the opposite,” the worker claimed.

They said other staff were refusing to go near the practice bomb out of fear for their safety before the NZDF had attended.

“I felt my life was actually in danger if [the bomb had been] real.”

Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.