Two detained over Air France emergency landing

Frederic Gagey, head of Air France, said in a statement, “The object did not contain explosives”.

Passengers were evacuated off emergency slides in Mombasa when a suspicious parcel with timer attached was found in the toilet of the Paris-bound flight. There are no reports of any injuries.

Five days after the assaults, Air France flights from Los Angeles and Washington to the carrier’s Charles de Gaulle hub made unscheduled landings in Salt Lake City and Halifax, Nova Scotia, respectively after phone threats called in to a reservation center at Delta Air Lines, the European carrier’s USA partner in the SkyTeam alliance.

Gagey congratulated the crew for their cool-headed reaction to divert the plane to Moi International Airport.

The incident is being investigated and on Monday, two passengers who were on the aircraft were detained.

The airline said earlier on Monday that it is seeking to press charges against whoever had planted the mock device – made of paper, cardboard and a kitchen timer – in the plane’s lavatory. A Kenyan police official said six passengers were questioned, including the person who informed the crew about the device.

Air France, meanwhile, has been the target of three prior hoaxes, all in the United States.

Most terrorists planting a real bomb would also attempt to hide it properly rather than simply planting in the toilets where it could easily be found, as happened with the Air France flight.

He added that the bomb had been founded by a passenger in a cupboard behind the restroom mirror.

France is on high alert after the Paris attacks in November and has put in place extra security precautions. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for those attacks and for downing a plane carrying Russian tourists out of Egypt in October. Moscow has said that the crash was caused by a bomb on the plane. Steven Ciaran, a 30-year-old Irishman, was seated at the back of the plane when he noticed rushed movement by cabin crew. He said passengers reassured each other.

“It makes sense to target Air France because it is one of the world’s biggest companies and France is a particular target for terrorism”, he said.