A man was arrested and accused of damaging an American military plane at Shannon Airport in Ireland on Saturday, Irish and American officials said.
Ireland’s police force, known as An Garda Síochána, said in a statement that the man was arrested for alleged criminal damage after entering a restricted area of the airport on Saturday morning. The police statement did not name the man, but said he was in his 40s.
The United States Air Force confirmed one of its planes had been damaged in an incident at the airport on Saturday. The plane, a C-130, was en route to support a bilateral military exercise in Poland, Staff Sgt. Alexandra M. Longfellow, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in a statement. Details of the damage “will not be released for operational security, and we can confirm no personnel were injured,” the statement added.
Operations at Shannon Airport were briefly suspended on Saturday morning, the airport said in a statement. The man is expected to face charges and appear before a court in Limerick on Monday, the police said.
Shannon Airport in County Clare has long been a hub for American military planes, and a frequent stopover for United States officials as they travel to Europe and the Middle East.
The modest facility on the western edge of Europe operates a handful of direct commercial American routes and several European flights from a single terminal. It is not uncommon to see U.S. troops sleeping on chairs in the airport or waiting in line at its lone cafe.
American officials have regularly used the airport since the postwar 1940s. The nation’s reliance on Shannon Airport has grown since the gulf war, and especially after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the site became a regular transit hub for American troops coming and going from the Middle East.
But the arrangement has faced increasing scrutiny from the Irish public in recent years. Ireland is not a member of NATO and has a longstanding policy of military neutrality that is widely embraced by the Irish public.
Human rights advocacy groups, including Amnesty International and the Open Society Justice Initiative, reported that Shannon Airport was used as a transit point for the Central Intelligence Agency’s rendition flights, as part of the agency’s post-9/11 torture program. The airport has since become a regular site of antiwar protest.
Leading Irish politicians have generally sought to avoid conflict with the Trump administration, but Ireland has balked at many of the American president’s policy decisions. Tariff policies have roiled local economies, which are heavily reliant on U.S. trade. Concerns around immigration and border checkpoints have added a new level of unease to the well-trod trans-Atlantic path. The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has also caused widespread disruption to Ireland’s economy.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.
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