Air France plane device was fake bomb, airline chief confirms

“It was an ensemble of cardboard, papers and something that resembled a kitchen timer”.

The object appeared to be a bomb but “was not capable of causing an explosion or damaging the plane”, Gagey told reporters. He said it contained no explosives.

Air France has been the target of four bomb alerts, including three on flights in the USA, since a terrorist attack in the French capital killed 130 people on November 13. On Tuesday, the two biggest school systems in the U.S. – New York City and Los Angeles – received threats of a large-scale jihadi attack.

It added: “They are being taken care of by Mombasa’s airport ground staff and will be accommodated”.

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority also posted on Twitter that that flights from Mombasa airport were disrupted due to the emergency landing.

The bomb found on board was taken by the Kenyan Navy to be detonated away from the airport while the passengers were safely escorted off the plane, the Kenyan Airport Authority said in a statement via its official Facebook page.

Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa said passengers had departed on another plane sent by Air France to pick them up. A safety check was carried out in the bathroom before the flight, he said, indicating the gadget was put in the bureau while the plane was noticeable all around. He says passengers are checked, and sometimes double-checked on flights, and denied any security failure in the flight Sunday.

The Boeing 777, originally headed to Paris from the island of Mauritius, was diverted to Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa.

The man in custody is a former police officer detained upon arrival at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Monday, according to an official in the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny.

One passenger, John Stephen, said: “We felt that the crew were tense and something was probably wrong”.

The hoax – the fourth against Air France in recent weeks – comes amid heightened concerns about extremist violence in many countries, and aggravated passenger jitters around the holidays. “So they keep everybody calm and really quiet”. “It was something in the toilet”.

Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said at Moi International Airport that an undisclosed number of passengers were being questioned about the suspect device, but did not say if they were under arrest: “We’re in touch with Mauritius to know how security screening of passengers was done”.