My complaint:
I travelled back to London today, having had no problem in my inbound flight the previous day. I was visiting Dublin for work purposes for the first time, in practically every airport in the UK I go through I tend to
set off a scanner machine, usually a second check is fine. This afternoon I set off the main scanner in Dublin and was asked to step aside for a further check. I was then subjected to a swab check and whilst going through this overheard conversations from your staff saying the machine that they were using had been ‘playing up for a while’ at this point a male member of staff suggested to the person conducting the swabbing test that they might want to use a different machine. This didn’t happen and I was then checked again on the same machine. At this point I was told a supervisor needed to be called. The supervisor then informed me I had two checks which showed indications of traces of explosives. I was then patted down and intrusively searched in full view of my colleagues and other passengers . I mentioned that staff had suggested the machines weren’t working and perhaps they could swab me again on a different machine which she then did and this result was negative. However I was then further detained , my possessions searched, I was questioned and I observed your staff member writing things in a notebook from my passport. Whilst I fully agree that airport security is paramount, I was swabbed three times in the airport in full view of my team, subjected to a thorough search and then had all of my possessions searched and I was questioned. At the time I was allowed to go and catch my flight , airport staff replaced the testing machine with another and talked about the fact that it was faulty. I am a 54 year old professional woman on a work trip ,it was hugely embarrassing to be swabbed three times, patted down, have my possessions searched, questioned about what medication I take and when I answered that it was HRT. I then had to explain to your supervisor what hormone replacement therapy is in full earshot of my colleagues and other passengers. This is perhaps the worst experience I have ever had in an airport and makes me wary of visited Dublin again. I do not object to your safety checks, I do object to being swabbed by an obviously faulty machine and being subjected to numerous checks in full view of my team and other passengers .
Suggested solution:
Apologise and explain why this was allowed to happen
