Bomb hoax on SriLankan flight

14 February 2011 01:21 pm

A Sri Lankan airline-Airbus A-340- bound to London, landed in Male this afternoon after a foreigner started alarming other passengers claiming that a bomb was onboard the flight. But, officials later found that the bomb threat was a hoax, reports said.

The Sri Lankan Airlines spokeswoman, Ruvini Jayasinghe told Haveeru Daily that Sri Lankan Airlines conducts a comprehensive search of the airlines before passengers are boarded and that several security measures are followed.

“We later found out that the bomb threat was a hoax and it was caused by one of the passengers in that flight. Before the flight took off to Male the regular security checks were done in the Bandaranaike International Airport,” she said.

“The flight was only grounded in Male for just over an hour for a search. It later proceeded to London. The bomb hoax will not affect our operations in Sri Lankan Airlines as we have been renowned for the safety measures we adopt,” she said.

The Sri Lankan Airlines flight which had 199 passengers onboard took off from Colombo on Monday afternoon and was originally scheduled to fly to London via Male.

The bomb hoax occurred after the aircraft had landed in Male, when a British passenger identified as Clement Paul started alarming the other passengers by saying that a bomb is onboard the flight.

Clement Paul was finally apprehended by the Maldivian authorities and the passengers in the Sri Lankan Airlines flight were evacuated by the Maldives National Defence Force that conducted a search. After the search the flight proceeded to London.