An internal inquiry should be carried out to understand how an Italian couple got onto the airport apron through an emergency fire door, according to former government security adviser Martin Scicluna.

“Any breach of security at an airport, particularly one like ours, which is the one and only, is an extremely serious matter. Whoever is responsible for that overall security at the airport should carry out an internal inquiry and take action accordingly,” he said.

The incident happened on Wednesday at about midday when Lecce couple Matteo Clementi, 26, and Enrica Apollonio, 23, dashed onto the apron to stop a Ryanair flight.

The couple missed their flight because they got stuck in traffic and desperately wanted to get on the plane because Ms Apollonio wanted to be home for her 23rd birthday. They were charged in court with breaching airport security and were each fined €2,329.

A Malta International Airport spokeswoman said that after looking into the incident and the procedures in place, the airport was satisfied with the response time and the way this incident was handled.

Such an incident cannot be considered to pose any security breach

“The passengers were apprehended in under five minutes,” she said, adding that the couple had breached the emergency fire exit located near Gate 10 in the Departures’ area.

All seven fire emergency doors in Departures were designed in line with fire emergency evacuation guidelines and regulations, she insisted. When opened they triggered a local sounder and an alarm in the airport’s control room.

In this case, the airport security team and the armed forces’ guards were immediately dispatched and the police called in. Others from the airport operations’ department focused on the safety parameters of the aircraft movement area.

The spokeswoman said the airport was monitored by 360-degree cameras and regular patrols were conducted. She stressed that passengers in the Departures area would have already been screened for any security threats. “Such an incident cannot be considered to pose any security breach since passengers have already accessed the highest level of security at the airport,” she said.

A security expert who worked for many years in the civil aviation industry, agreed that the response time by security staff was good.

He said the airport followed EU airport safety regulations, insisting that, considering the exit used by the Italian couple, it was not a matter of a security breach but, rather, a safety issue.

“Walking near an aircraft is outrageous in the aviation scene... They didn’t realise the danger they were in,” he said.

Captain Joe Farrugia, an airline pilot with 40 years’ experience, said nobody should venture close to a plane when the engine was started, except for trained airport staff and engineers. “There is the danger of being sucked into the engine if you are standing in front and, if behind, you can be blown away by the jet blast,” he said.

“It was more of a security issue. It’s unheard of that someone just opens a door and walks onto the apron. I don’t know what they were expecting. It’s like they were trying to catch a bus. A plane will never take on passengers at that stage, in real life. There are various factors such as weight and passenger count,” he noted.

Questions on whether an inquiry will be held that were sent to the Office of the Manager Airport Security, a government entity that handles airport security, remained unanswered by the time of writing.