A Russian Aeroflot flight from New York to Moscow has made an emergency landing in Iceland’s Keflavik airport after a bomb threat was received.
Officials said an anonymous call had been made to United States law enforcement agencies warning a bomb was inside luggage on board the plane. Aeroflot spokeswoman Irina Dannenberg said the pilot took the decision to land the plane and it landed safely.
Officials said the Russian Aeroflot plane, luggage and passengers are now being investigated. More than 2 hundred passengers were on board the flight from John F Kennedy airport in New York to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
Fridthor Eydal, the manager at Reykjavik’s Keflavik International Airport, told the Airbus A330 with exactly 253 passengers on board landed safely at 6:27 amand the plane had been successfully evacuated.
Russian plane had emergency landing after bomb threat / Aeroflot flight 103 News
Whole passengers from the Russian Aeroflot plane were going through standard security procedures on the ground in Reykjavik and would later be transported to a nearby hotel.
The passengers are being checked as part of the security investigation, and it was too early to confirm how and when they would complete their journey. Another plane in Russia’s city of Voronezh, 500 km south of Moscow, was also searched after an anonymous threat, but no any bombs were found.
The anonymous caller warned that there were 5 suitcases on the plane containing explosives, which would detonate once it reached Moscow. But finally Russian Aeroflot plane 103 landed safely early in the morning.
No bombs or any other explosives were found on Russian Aeroflot plane board, and no injuries were reported. It was unclear which law enforcement agency the caller contacted. No arrests have also been announcement.
In January 2011 a suicide bomb blast at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport killed 37 passengers. Islamist insurgents in Russia’s North Caucasus claimed responsibility.
In August 2004, suicide bombers identified as women from the North Caucasus blew up two planes on domestic Russian routes, killing all 90 people aboard.
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