Gozo Channel executive chairman Joe Cordina has sympathised with passengers who endured a three-hour wait on Saturday as ships were searched following a bomb scare, but there was little they could do.

He was reacting to complaints that reached this newspaper from some passengers who felt the company should have kept them better informed.

Others complained there were not enough seats in the terminal halls to accommodate the 500 or so passengers as they waited for the police to give the all-clear to board.

Nobody likes being stranded for three hours and I can fully understand the frustration

“The hall is not equipped with enough benches to accommodate more than 50 or 100, so most of us ended up sitting on the floor when we could not bear standing any longer. During that period nobody bothered to update us,” an irate passenger said.

Mr Cordina explained the ferry terminal halls were not designed to hold all those people but promised the company would hold an internal meeting next week to analyse the situation and improve things for the future.

“Nobody likes being stranded for three hours and I can fully understand the frustration but the timing of the bomb scare made matters worse because the two ships were about to depart,” Mr Cordina said.

The police ordered Gozo Channel to stop the service since the anonymous caller who made the threat did not identify a particular ship. All three ferries had to be searched. Mr Cordina said the biggest problem was that two ships on either side of the channel were ready to go when the order to evacuate passengers was issued. Passengers had to leave the ship without their vehicles.

“As is normal protocol, our crew and captain searched the vessel for any suspicious object but the process took longer because we had to wait for the army divers to inspect the bottom of the ships,” Mr Cordina said. The length of time it took for the whole process to conclude was outside the company’s control. The bomb hoax disrupted passengers’ travel plans, including some who were heading to the airport to board a plane.

Mr Cordina hoped the police would catch the culprit, insisting such behaviour was totally uncalled for.

Questions sent to the police on the protocol adopted when anonymous bomb threats are made were not answered by the time of writing.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com