On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, Klagenfurt Airport had to be closed briefly. At around 10:15 a.m., employees discovered a suspicious object during the security check. The police ordered the terminal to be evacuated as a precaution.
An explosives expert then took a closer look at the suspicious piece of hand luggage, which, according to the executive branch, allegedly belonged to an Asian passenger. After a very short time, the officer was able to give the all-clear because the suspicious items turned out to be a harmless USB distributor, power bank and Asian food specialty.
The incident was explained by the fact that the three objects on the x-ray were said to have been lying awkwardly on top of each other. The executive lifted the ban immediately after the expert gave the all-clear. Regular flight operations resumed at around 10:40 a.m.
However, this had an impact on the Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna: it was delayed by around 30 minutes. Since there aren't that many flights in Klagenfurt anyway, it's extremely rare for flights here to experience delays caused on the ground. It happened on Tuesday due to the special caution of the security personnel and the police.
However, the evacuation had the “side effect” for those people who had already completed the security check that they had to be checked again because they left the security area (for the purpose of precautionary evacuation). According to official information, no one missed their flight due to the temporary closure of the terminal.