Airport on alert after bomb hoax

THERE was a bomb scare on a plane flying into Cork Airport last night.

It is understood a note was found while the Air Fortuna flight carrying 120 passengers from Faro in Portugal was on its way to Ireland.

The crew onboard notified Cork Airport immediately and it put in place an emergency plan which it created for such events.

After the aircraft landed, it was kept away from the main airport terminal on an outer runway.

The passengers were taken off the aeroplane and bussed to the main building before gardaí began a thorough search of the aircraft.

The army bomb squad at Collins Barracks were alerted and were kept on standby, while the gardaí investigated.

However, they were not required to travel to the scene.

In co-operation with gardaí, the airport authorities were able to keep flights into and out of the airport running to schedule. Eventually after a thorough search of the aeroplane authorities were able to declare the event a hoax.

While gardaí interviewed passengers as a result of the incident and some remained at the airport for some time, there were no arrests made according to a Garda spokeswoman.

An airport spokesman said that as soon as the alert came in from the aircraft, officials were able to put in place the emergency plan and that had worked well yesterday evening.

There have been a number of incidents of bomb-scares on aeroplanes, particularly since the increased threat of a terrorist attack after September 11.

Last year a Ryanair Boeing 737 aircraft was diverted to Prestwick Airport near Glasgow as a result of a mid-air bomb scare which turned out to be a hoax warning left in a magazine on board the aircraft.

The aircraft had been carrying 172 passengers, including 71 schoolgirls from Carlow, from Beauvais to Dublin.