Security breaches at Melbourne and Adelaide airports cause flight delays

Frustrated passengers have been forced to evacuate from Melbourne and Adelaide airports after security breaches, causing long delays and missed flights. Federal police shut down one section of a Melbourne airport terminal and ordered passengers disembark from a plane ready for takeoff after an apparent security breach on Tuesday morning. A Qantas passenger allegedly entered security gates at Tullamarine without being screened, which led to other passengers having to evacuate the area before being re-screened. The airline has since apologised to customers as it investigates. “A passenger appears to have inadvertently passed from an unscreened area to a screened area of the airport in Melbourne,” a Qantas spokesperson said. “As a precaution, all Qantas operations have been put on hold and passengers in the terminal are being re-screened, which is causing delays to some services this morning. Safety is our number one priority but we know this disruption is causing some inconvenience for our passengers and we apologise for that. We are investigating how this incident occurred.” In a post on Twitter about 7.30am, Melbourne airport officials said screening of passengers in T1 had resumed although delays were expected. In Adelaide, passengers were also subjected to travel delays after a similar incident.<br/>