Mark Downey has been in er, explosive form of late but the young Banbridge man got himself into a spot of bother in Birmingham airport this afternoon when his bags needed to be investigated for what security personnel deemed were potentially dangerous devices.
By Brian Canty
A minor emergency was avoided in Birmingham airport earlier as the Irish team were travelling to France for the Kreizh Breizh elites race which starts on Saturday.
Mark Downey is one of the riders in the team who flew through the UK airport this afternoon and the young Banbridge man got quite a shock when he caused a level four security alert.
The scale on which security alerts are measured goes from one to five, though a level five security alert is rare.
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Downey had to make himself known to security personnel who demanded to know what the Co2 cannister in his baggage was for.
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Obviously, there was a readymade answer and the drama was quickly ended but not before he had a little heart-in-mouth moment.
He took to social media earlier to offer his apologies to those affected by the incident.
“Apologies to all the passengers in Birmingham airport for the evacuation with my level 4 baggage alert! Lesson learned don't carry cO2 canisters, can anyone lend me a pump?”, he wrote.
Specifically, if the security officer is not sure about the contents of the bag, a Level 4 check takes place where the bag is removed from the system and brought to the passenger.
The security officer will carry out a baggage check in front of the passenger.
Cyclists eh? They’ll never understand us…
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