Air France 'bomb': Device found on board Paris-bound flight was fake, airline boss says

Aircraft makes emergency landing after object made of cardboard, paper and a household timer found in plane bathroom
Reuters
Sebastian Mann20 December 2015

A suspected bomb which forced the emergency landing of an Air France plane in Kenya was fake, the airline's chief executive has said.

The device was found in the bathroom of the Boeing 777 en route to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Mauritius on Sunday.

Its discovery prompted the pilots to request an emergency landing in Mombasa.

Air France boss Frederic Gagey said the device was made of cardboard, paper and a household timer. In a news conference in Paris, Gagey praised the crew for their cool-headed reaction to divert the plane.

"This object did not contain explosives," he added.

Gagey says a safety check was carried out in the bathroom before the flight and denied any security failure.

A Kenyan police official, who asked not to be identified, said during the flight a passenger noticed something in a lavatory which looked like "a stop watch mounted on a box."

He said six passengers were being questioned over the discovery.

Emergency: Passengers were escorted to hotels from Moi International Airport
Reuters

The Boeing 777 Air France flight 463 had left Mauritius at 9pm local time and had been due to arrive in Paris Charles de Gaulle at 5.50am French time.

A passenger who spoke to journalists after leaving the plane in Mombasa described the emergency landing.

Benoit Lucchini, from Paris, said: "The plane just went down slowly, slowly, slowly, so we just realised probably something was wrong.

"The personnel of Air France was just great, they were just wonderful. So they keep everybody calm. We did not know what was happening."

Additional reporting by AP

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