Bomb Scare On Irish Flights

A flight from England to Ireland had to be diverted to Scotland after cabin crew found a note claiming a bomb was on board. Two RAF Tornado jet fighters escorted the Aer Arann flight to Prestwick airport where passengers and crew disembarked and waited in the airport terminal. The note was declared a hoax. It was the second such incident in four days, with a Ryanair flight from Beauvais (Paris) to Dubin forced to land at Prestwick last Wednesday because of a bomb alert. Army bomb disposal experts searched the Boeing 737 but did not find a bomb. Strathclyde police said five crew and 167 passengers were escorted off the plane and questioned at the airport. The police said a passenger had handed the pilot a note written on a page of a magazine, which claimed a bomb had been hidden underneath a seat on the aircraft. An inquiry is underway to establish whether the passenger wrote the note or innocently discovered it. No arrests were made, but passengers were being questioned about the incident.