Bomb Scare Grounds Air France Flight
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris was forced to land in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa after a device suspected to be a bomb was found in the lavatory, a Kenyan police official said Sunday.
The Boeing 777 Air France flight 463 was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when the pilots requested an emergency landing at the Moi International Airport at 12:37 a.m., Police Spokesman Charles Owino said, AFP reported.
"It requested an emergency landing when a device suspected to be an explosive was discovered in the lavatory," Owino said.
The plane was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board and had left Mauritius at 9 p.m., Owino said.
All passengers were safely evacuated and the device was taken out, said Owino. Bomb experts are analyzing the suspected explosive, he said.
"The object, believed to be an explosive device has successfully been retrieved from the aircraft," said Kenya Airports Authority in a post on Twitter, adding that scheduled flights to Mombasa were disrupted during the interval but that normal operations have resumed.