Passenger held for jet bomb hoax
A Kuwaiti man was arrested in Greece yesterday on suspicion of having left a handwritten bomb threat in a toilet of an Egyptian airliner flying over the country. The plane made an emergency landing at Athens Airport but no explosives were found. Airport authorities went on high alert after being notified of the threat by EgyptAir officials, contacted by the pilot of the Airbus 320 jet which was flying from Madrid to Cairo with 85 passengers and a crew of eight. This followed the discovery, in a toilet, as the plane was approaching Greek air space, of a note in English that said: «Found the bomb yet?» The EgyptAir plane landed safely around 9 p.m. and all the people on board were evacuated while a search of the aircraft and passengers’ luggage by special police forces using sniffer dogs failed to locate a bomb. All passengers were detained for questioning and it emerged that the Kuwaiti had been last to visit the toilet, while his handwriting was deemed to match that of the note. The man, whose name was not released, will be charged with issuing threats regarding a flight.
