Italian jets force presidential 'bomb' plane to divert

An Italian F16 jet fighter intercepted a suspicious plane heading to Rome today, hours after the pop’s funeral and escorted it to a military airport.

The plane was forced to land at the airport at 3.20pm Irish time after intelligence sources warned it was carrying a bomb, an air force spokesman said.

However, a team of paramilitary carabinieri officers inspected it and found nothing. “There was no device on board. It was clean,” said the spokesman.

He said the plane was cleared to leave the military airport and land at Rome’s Ciampino airport, which was closed today for routine civilian traffic because of the funeral.

The Lear Jet 131 executive plane was headed to Ciampino to pick up the president of Macedonia and his delegation and take them back to Skopje, the Air Force said.

Officials in Belgrade, who asked not to be named, said a plane sent to fly home the official Serbia-Montenegro delegation after the funeral was searched following a bomb threat, and was later allowed to leave for Belgrade with its passengers.

It was not immediately clear whether this was the plane that was intercepted.

The incident happened three hours after the end of the pope’s funeral while many of the dignitaries who attended the rites were departing. President George Bush and his delegation had left about two hours before the plane was spotted.

The incident came amid a heightened alert because of the presence in Rome of dozens of royalty, and heads of state or government for the funeral. Dignitaries from 138 countries attended the event.