Air France passenger detained after fake bomb found

Police in Paris have detained two people who were on an Air France flight forced to make an emergency landing in Kenya when a fake bomb was found on board, reports say.

She said that the Air France desk at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris had filed a complaint to the authorities in Bobigny, in the north-eastern suburbs of the French capital.

It landed at Moi International Airport, Mombasa, before 1am local time (2137 GMT).

“One of my grandchildren said: ‘The (emergency) slide was super!”

It was later declared to be a fake bomb. Around 70 Paris airport workers have had their security passes withdrawn because they are suspected of links with radical Islamists.

The object, made up of cardboard, paper and a kitchen timer, was found to pose no danger to the aircraft or its passengers, Air France chief executive Frederic Gagey said on Sunday. So they keep everybody calm.

The plane was a Boeing 777 with 459 passengers and 14 crew members, Kenyan officials said. No bombs were found on the planes from Los Angeles and Washington. It was not immediately clear what, if any, action was taken in response to that threat. “Because of the speed of the airplane going down, we thought we would crash in the sea”, said passenger Marine Gorlier to the Associated Press. “We find this behavior stupid, damaging and unacceptable”. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for those attacks and for downing a plane carrying Russian tourists out of Egypt in October.

Several passengers were questioned in Mombasa before a plane was sent to return all those on board to France.

Steven Ciaran, a 30-year-old from Ireland, said he was seated at the back of the Air France jetliner watching a movie when he noticed the rushed movement of cabin crew members. Telling passengers, he said, “would really create unnecessary problems”.

“I was very distressed because I could see we were far from the destination”.

He said passengers moved to reassure each other as their flight was promptly diverted.