Stunned passengers watched in horror as a vehicle went on fire and exploded at Dublin Airport.
Shocking footage emerged today of a ground handling vehicle completely ablaze at Terminal Two as Dublin Airport bosses tried to play down the incident.
As dozens of terrified holiday-goers watched on and even filmed the ordeal, the vehicle was seen exploding after it had somehow caught on fire on the tarmac at around 9.20am this morning.
Read More: Woman can forgive 'overflowing bins' in Dublin Airport but price of wine is last straw
Sources confirmed that gardai are not treating the fire as being deliberate - and it is believed something accidentally went alight inside the vehicle.
Over an hour after the incident occurred, Dublin Airport took to Twitter where they told confused passengers arriving for their flights not to panic.
“Nobody panic! Dublin Airport Police and Fire Service responded this morning to a ground handling vehicle on fire on the apron.
“This fire activated several smoke alarms in Terminal 2 but no passengers were evacuated.
“This had no impact on flight operations,” they said.
However not everyone on social media agreed, with one man tweeting: “While well handled, it absolutely did affect operations. Our flight was 45 minutes late leaving, and left without any check in luggage.”
“Add the fire to the lack of steps for passengers getting off flights, delays in baggage getting off flights, no belts assigned for baggage,
baggage on the ground,” another complainant tweeted.
In a later comment, a spokesperson for Dublin Airport stated that the fire was extinguished within six minutes - and admitted that the incident did have a minor impact on operations.
The comment comes after Dublin Airport earlier claimed on Twitter that it had had “no impact.”
“A fire in a ground handling vehicle at 9:20am this morning was quickly extinguished within six minutes by the Airport Fire Service at Dublin Airport.
“The fire had minimal impact on flight operations.”
The spokesperson added that passengers were kept informed about what was going on.
“Dublin Airport’s fire marshals reacted appropriately and kept passengers informed of the airside incident which was being dealt with by the Dublin Airport Fire Service and while Airport Police managed vehicular traffic airside throughout the incident.”
A garda spokesperson separately said about the incident : “Gardaí attended the scene of a fire in the environs of Dublin Airport on the morning of Tuesday, 14th June, 2022.
“No injuries were reported. The fire was extinguished by Airport Fire Services.”
The fire comes days after Dublin Airport experienced a nationwide backlash over disastrous queuing outside both of its terminal buildings that led to over a thousand people missing their flights.
The crisis led to outgoing Dublin Airport Chief Executive Dalton Phlips being hauled before an Oireachtas Committee hearing, where he outlined plans to fix the queuing problems.
There, he apologised to passengers and said he could “appreciate the anger, frustration and upset that this has caused.”
“Put simply, we failed in our duty to our passengers and I want to offer my deep apologies to everyone impacted and indeed to the members of the Oireachtas, as I also recognise the reputational damage to our country for which connectivity and ease of access is our lifeblood,” he said.
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
