A man has been arrested on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat aboard a Qatar Airways plane, which was escorted to Manchester Airport by military jets.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) scrambled a Typhoon fighter jet from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to intercept and escort the Airbus A330-30 to Manchester Airport where the suspect was escorted from the plane by armed police.
Those on board the plane captured photographs and videos of the escort and the suspect being arrested:
@BBCBreaking police escort pic.twitter.com/qXUJCllXpc
— Matthew Qox (@MattPeterC) August 5, 2014
Flight QR23 was en route from Doha to Manchester with 269 passengers and 13 air crew on board when the threat was made.
Greater Manchester Police treated the incident as a “full emergency” and all flights in and out of Manchester Airport were delayed for 25 minutes.
In a statement on the incident, Qatar Airways said:
Qatar Airways can confirm that flight QR23 from Doha to Manchester, an Airbus A330-300, landed safely at Manchester Airport ahead of its scheduled arrival time of 13:15. There were 269 passengers and 13 Qatar Airways crew on board.
The crew had received a threat about a possible device on board and #QatarAirways immediately took all the necessary precautions to alert British authorities. The crew is now fully assisting police at the airport with their inquiries. The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is our top priority. As this is a matter of a police investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.
