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A LONG HAUL flight from Dublin airport has been diverted to a military base over a ‘security threat onboard’.
Etihad Airways flight EY042 from Dublin to Abu Dhabi, which took off yesterday morning, was diverted to land at Al Minhad Air Base in Dubai with several Irish passengers on board.
“The crew completed all necessary inflight checks as per procedure, with no abnormalities found, then followed the authorities instructions to undergo further security checks at the air base,” an Etihad spokesman said this afternoon.
Upon disembarking, the guests, baggage and aircraft went through additional security screening which took several hours.
Throughout this process, the passengers remained at the Air Base and were provided with refreshments according to the spokesman.
Passengers were subsequently brought to Abu Dhabi Airport (about 80 miles) by bus with police escort, and were received into the city after being processed through the terminal there.
The majority of transferring passengers were placed on flights this morning after being accommodated overnight in the city.
The precise cause of the diversion is not yet known.
Etihad today apologised “for the inconvenience caused” to the travelling passengers, while insisting their safety and security “is our top priority”.
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I do have sympathy with the people affected by this drought, but you have to wonder why Ethiopia is spending €100m on 200 tanks while its people are suffering like this
There buying them as they are building a the biggest dam in Africa on the Blue Nile much to the dislike of Egypt, which has more than once said it would go to war if the flow of the Nile is reduce because of Ethiopian power & irrigation projects.
Because it’s run by corrupt despots. Throwing money at these countries isn’t the solution, education followed ousting the leaders and putting a democracy in place is. Easier said than done though.
It’s an unjust world we live in.
dont get me wrong, i feel sorry for these people but i dont think we have “additional” money to send over there when we are closing A&E wards here.
As an alternative, everyone could buy one less pint this week and use that money, that’s a few million right there. But we all know that’s not going to happen either
so what your saying is take even more money out of the economy? if everyone in the country drank one less pint a week it would cause job losses and less tax revenue to support our own country, just so we can send it all abroad.
How on earth can this country afford to be giving money away?
It’s not our money, it’s the IMFs! (they don’t know that we’re not gonna pay it all back ssshhhh)
Seriously though what’s another 6 million to pay back? It doesn’t even scratch the surface of the interest.
Seeing and hearing about people in these countries really puts our “problems” into perspective. We’re far from utopia, and we do have our issues with poverty here, but it’s a different world over there.
I think we can & should help these people out as best we can. To stand by & let people suffer in the name of austerity so the bankers & IMF/ECB can have it instead is not an option.
One million is barely a bonus for one banker. At least in aid it will help reduce the suffering of many.
One less pack of cigarettes from those on the dole would cover much more than this aid package – and I’d much rather see our limitedresources spent on feeding the hungry rather than on fake tan and going-out pyjamas for the unemployed.
That is ridicuous, why are we giving so much money away to this? That’s 5.6 million that could be used to provide special needs assistance in schools or keep the a&e open in roscommon hospital. Not a cent of that is reaching those poor people.
Totally agree, what about the aid we also give to Africans here claiming asylum. As we seen earlier using forged documents and other scams. These funds could be better spent on our own people. I believe we should end foreign aid completely until we are in a position where we can afford it.
have your say