Flight to Beijing hit by bomb threat
Print Edition
AN EgyptAir plane heading for Beijing had to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan yesterday after the airline received a call saying there was a bomb on board.
Egyptian officials said nothing was found after the Airbus A330-220 and its passengers were searched by explosives experts and the plane took off for the Chinese capital four hours after it landed in the town of Urgench, about 840 kilometers west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
It was the latest in a series of deadly or damaging air travel incidents involving Egypt.
According to the officials, an anonymous caller phoned security agents at Cairo airport to say there was a bomb on EgyptAir Flight 955 which had 135 passengers and crew on board. The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and ordered it to land at the nearest airport.
In Russia, news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official with Uzbekistan Airways as saying the airport in Urgench had been closed following the EgyptAir plane’s emergency landing. Later, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Uzbekistan Airways as saying the plane was searched, no explosive devices were found and the aircraft was cleared to go.
The incident came nearly three weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed in the Mediterranean Sea as it was approaching the Egyptian coast while en route to Cairo from Paris. All 66 people on board were killed and the search for the plane’s flight and data recorders — the so called black boxes — is still underway.
Egyptian officials say the Paris-Cairo plane was most likely downed by an act of terror.
Last October, a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft just hours after the crash. In November, Russia said an explosive device brought down the aircraft.
The Russian airliner’s crash decimated Egypt’s already battered tourism industry.
While the cause of the May 19 EgyptAir crash remains unknown, it associated Egypt with another disaster to further dent its once lucrative industry.
The two disasters have unsettled authorities in Cairo, where false alarms or bomb threats have this week caused lengthy delays to flights and at least one cancelation.
Security has also been considerably tightened at Egypt’s 20-plus airports since the Russian disaster.
In March, an Egyptian man hijacked an EgyptAir plane on a flight from Alexandria to Cairo and forced it to land in Cyprus. Seif Eddin Mustafa, who was wearing a fake suicide belt, threatened to destroy the plane.
All 72 passengers and crew were released unharmed after a six-hour standoff.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
