According to Bloomberg, pilots aboard an Air Europa flight preparing to depart Amsterdam mistakenly transmitted a hijacking notice; this prompted a quick response by Dutch authorities and delayed the flight by more than three hours.
The flight was UX1094 flying from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) to Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) operated by an Airbus A330-200 registered as EC-LQP.
According to the airport, Pier D at Amsterdam was temporarily closed.
None of the flights were cancelled but several dozen were delayed due to the false alarm.
Air Europa also made an announcement soon after the incident, apologising to all passengers.
According to a video recorded by a Business Class passenger aboard, the captain also made an apology to the cabin after he accidentally activated the alarm.
According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, a pilot was showing an intern the various transponder codes aboard the aircraft and “the send button was then accidentally pressed.”
While the Air Europa incident definitely caused horror and disturbance in the operation of Amsterdam airport, it is good to see the alarm was a false one and nobody was hurt. Even better than that, no flight was cancelled and everyone was able to get to their destination.