Singapore Airlines Flight Diverted to UK Airport
AP 2004/10/4
London
A Singapore Airlines passenger jet was diverted to Manchester Airport in northern England today after a bomb threat, police said, adding that it may have been a hoax.
The Frankfurt to New York flight landed safely at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) without a military escort, Greater Manchester Police said.
It was the fourth commercial service diverted as a security precaution in Europe in the last nine days.
One was diverted to Stansted airport north of London, while another was diverted to Shannon in western Ireland and a third to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. All three flights resumed their journeys after searches concluded there was no threat to security.
United Airlines, meanwhile, said today that one of its flights, diverted to Heathrow on Sunday for mechanical reasons, had been unable to resume its journey Monday for security reasons. Police said the aircraft was searched and given the all-clear.
The pilot of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ26 declared a "full emergency" mid-flight, a spokesman for Manchester Airport said. The Boeing 747-400, bound for New York's JFK airport, was carrying 292 passengers and 19 crew.
"Early indications are that it could be a hoax, but we cannot confirm that one way or another until full checks are carried out," a spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said.
"We got a security warning from the German security authorities," said Peter Menkel, an official with Singapore Airlines in Frankfurt. He said he did not have details, but added that "it had nothing to do with a passenger on board, it was external."
In Germany, federal police spokesman Klaus Ludwig said a bomb threat against the flight was made in a call to police in the southwestern German city of Tuebingen.
The caller also threatened a United Airlines flight to Chicago and a Lufthansa flight to London, he said.
Ludwig said the caller had a male voice but had no further details.
In Germany, Lufthansa spokeswoman Katrin Haase said that, in close consultation with authorities, the German airline deemed the threat against one of its flights "so unspecific" that the flight went ahead.
A United Airlines spokeswoman in London said that today's Frankfurt to Chicago service was going ahead as normal. She couldn't comment on the phone threat.
But the spokeswoman also said that Sunday's UA945 flight from Frankfurt to Chicago was diverted to Heathrow for mechanical reasons.
She added that the flight had been due to resume its journey Monday, but was canceled for security reasons.
"There is a security issue which is being dealt with by the Metropolitan Police," she said.
Officers from London's Metropolitan Police searched a United Airlines aircraft this morning following a security alert but gave it the all-clear, a spokesman for the police force said. He didn't give any more details.
|
