Air France plane in bomb scare
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The reading
There was a bomb scare on an Air France flight on Sunday. The plane was flying from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius to Paris. A passenger found a strange-looking device made from a kitchen timer, cardboard and paper in a toilet. They alerted staff and the pilot decided to make an emergency landing in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, which was the nearest airport. Air France's CEO Frederic Gagey said the device was harmless and caused a "false alarm". He said that someone probably put it in the toilet at some point during the flight. Mr Gagey added: "All the information available to us at the moment indicates that the object was not capable of creating an explosion or damaging a plane."
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Some of the passengers were put on alternative flights to Paris. Five others are being questioned by the police. A Kenyan police chief told the Reuters news agency that: "[Some people] are now airborne, but a few among them, who we we're interrogating, have remained with us, until ongoing investigations are done." The plane was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew members. One of those on board said the crew told them that the plane was being diverted because of a technical problem. He said: "The plane just went down, slowly, slowly, slowly, so we just realised probably something was wrong." He added: "The crew of Air France were just great, just wonderful. They kept everybody calm and really quiet.
Sources:
- http://www.reuters.com/article/kenya-airlines-airfrance-idUSKBN0U30BF20151221
- http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2015/12/21/5-held-in-mombasa-bomb-found-in-air-france-plane_c1264005
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/experts-jet-crew-shouldnt-tell-passengers-of-bomb-scare/2015/12/20/dad0d4b2-a793-11e5-b596-113f59ee069a_story.html
