London ‘bomb’ plane is cleared
POLICE searching a Heathrow plane at the centre of a new alleged bomb threat found nothing and allowed the jet to leave yesterday.
Armed police boarded the Emirates flight on Friday on the tarmac after a “verbal threat was made to staff”.
Three British men aged 58, 48 and 36, at least one of whom was reported to be white, were arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat and were in police custody last night.
It was made at 9.15pm Friday when the aircraft, with 331 passengers, was about to take off for Dubai.
One fellow passenger told television news reporters they saw a man being taken away in handcuffs.
He said: “Police just swarmed the guy and rushed him out. I think he was a white male.”
He said police with sniffer dogs then swarmed on to the plane. Passengers were put up in a hotel for the night.
A series of security measures have been brought in at Heathrow since the Christmas Day Detroit bomb plot.
Extra bag checks and body searches and on board regulations have delayed flights for up to three hours.