Passenger held on suspicion of plane bomb hoax
The incident, which prompted the authorities to close the busy airport for 25 minutes, briefly raised fears of a terrorism attack.
Qatar Airways said the Airbus A330-300 plane was flight QR23 from Doha to Manchester with 269 passengers and 13 crew on board.
Armed police removed a handcuffed male passenger dressed in baggy trousers and a sports shirt from the plane.
“We can confirm that Typhoon aircraft were launched from RAF Coningsby in their quick reaction alert role this afternoon to investigate a civilian aircraft whose pilot had requested assistance,” Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.
“The aircraft was escorted to Manchester where it landed safely. This incident is now being handled by the civilian authorities,” it said. Greater Manchester Police said on its official Twitter feed that it had detained one man.
“A man who was on board the plane has been arrested on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat,” they said.
Britain has a standard response to such incidents which always involves scrambling fighter jets and emergency services.
In May 2013, fighter jets escorted a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane to Stansted Airport near London where police went on board and arrested two men on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.
Plane passenger Aurang Zeb, 60, returning from a holiday to his home in Bradford, said: “I thought there was something wrong because there was a jet flying so near.”
Mr Zeb said the plane landed and was taken to an area well away from the terminal and other planes, where they waited for 45 minutes then moved again closer to the terminal.
Mr Zeb added: “Then I saw all the police with guns. Lots of police everywhere. Kids were crying.”
He said two armed police then came on and removed the suspect.
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