A Qatar Airways flight has landed at Manchester Airport in England after being escorted in by RAF fighter pilots after the pilot reported seeing a suspicious object on board. The airport has now reportedly returned to normal functionality and every one onboard the plane appears to be safe.
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A man was reportedly placed under arrest and escorted from the plane by Manchester police on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat.
Qatar Airways has released a statement confirming that it did receive a threat:
Qatar Airways can confirm that flight QR23 from Doha to Manchester, an Airbus A330-300, landed safely at Manchester Airport ahead of its scheduled arrival time of 13:15. There were 269 passengers and 13 Qatar Airways crew on board. The crew onboard had received a threat about a possible device on board and Qatar Airways immediately took all the necessary precautions to alert British authorities. The crew is now fully assisting police at the airport with their inquiries. The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is our top priority. As this is a matter of a police investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.
As the plane, which was flying in to the UK from Doha in Qatar, crossed into British airspace however, tension appeared to be high. Adding to this tension was the fact that passengers were not kept informed about the situation.
One passenger aboard the plane, Josh Hartley, tweeted the incident in its entirety. Hartley, who calls himself a “geek, nerd, full time savior of galaxies”, tweeted out pictures of the fighter escort as well as scenes from inside the plane and emergency vehicles on the runway
Had a full body x-ray scan in those new machines, I feel violated. ;_;
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
Being escorted in pic.twitter.com/oXwxmhNsjo
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
Okay no I am worried
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
Emergency services on strip
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
Landed duno what the fuck is happening.
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
The guy sat next me says hi
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
Armed police outside the plane
— Josh Hartley (@JoshHartley_) August 5, 2014
Another passenger tweeted a picture of a man being escorted from the plane by Manchester police:
@BBCBreaking police escort pic.twitter.com/qXUJCllXpc
— Matthew Qox (@MattPeterC) August 5, 2014
Image: Aero Icarus via Flickr.
