Bomb scare diverts UK-bound jet

from BBC News online

Bomb scare diverts UK-bound jet

A bomb scare which forced a London-bound Qatar Airways plane to make an emergency landing in Syria has turned out to be a false alarm.
Qatar Airways described the scare as a “hoax” after the plane carrying some 250 passengers had landed in Damascus.

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A woman of European origin who raised the alarm is to remain in the Syrian capital for questioning, but the other passengers are expected to travel on to London on the same plane.

The scare came amid heightened tension throughout the Gulf, where Britain and the United States have been massing troops and military equipment ahead of a possible attack on Iraq.

The passengers on board the Airbus A330-200 were taken off the plane while Syrian police searched for a device, but nothing was found.

Flight QR001 from the Qatari capital, Doha, to London Heathrow is due to continue shortly, the airline said.

The incident was the second involving a Qatar Airways plane this weekend.

A second airliner was delayed in Cairo after a hoax message containing a bomb threat was found aboard.

Scare mystery

Qatar Airways said that none of the passengers or crew in Damascus had been harmed and the plane had been thoroughly searched.

“A female passenger of European origin is being questioned by the Syrian authorities,” it said in its statement.

The Qatari ambassador to Syria, Abdullah al-Hamr, said it was unclear what had caused the scare.

“We don’t know what prompted the passenger to say this,” he said.

“However, Qatar Airways took the appropriate measures to safeguard the flight and asked the plane to land… All the passengers are fine. The situation is reassuring.”

In the Cairo scare, cleaners found a note purporting to be from the al-Qaeda network, saying “the plane will blow up on take-off”.

The plane’s 147 passengers were delayed more than two and a half hours awaiting departure.

Key ally

Centcom, the US military’s command body for the Middle East, Asia and North Africa, is based at the as-Syliyah base in Qatar and is likely to be the regional command centre for any invasion of Iraq, correspondents say.

About 7,000 US troops are stationed in the country along with F-117A Stealth bombers.

Only on Friday, the UK advised its citizens already in Qatar to consider leaving and the Foreign Office said its non-essential diplomatic staff were being allowed to leave.

Similar advice has been issued for Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

London also recently beefed up security at major UK airports amid a terror scare.
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