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FRENCH POLICE HAVE detained a retired policeman over the discovery of a fake bomb on board an Air France flight which made an emergency landing in Kenya, a legal source said.
The 58-year-old man was taken into custody by border police upon his return to France today while his wife was also being questioned as a witness, after their flight from Mauritius to Paris was diverted to Kenya on Sunday.
The source gave no further details about the couple, including their nationalities.
A passenger alerted crew members to the device found inside a toilet cubicle yesterday on board the Boeing 777, which was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew.
The plane landed in Mombasa where passengers were evacuated using emergency slides before navy and police bomb experts were called in to examine the suspicious item.
The object, made up of cardboard, paper and a kitchen timer, was found to pose no danger to the aircraft or its passengers, Air France chief executive Frederic Gagey said.
He said the “deduction” was that the item had been placed in a toilet cupboard by one of the passengers and said the bomb scare appeared to be the result of a “bad joke”.
Several passengers were questioned in Mombasa before a plane was sent to return all those on board to France.
What happens next
An Air France spokesman said the airline had taken legal action after the discovery of the suspicious object.
The airline “filed a legal complaint against unknown persons for endangering the life of others,” the spokesman said.
France is on high alert after jihadist attacks in Paris in November left 130 people dead, and is one of many countries taking extra security precautions.
Airlines are especially jittery after Islamic State jihadists who claimed the Paris attacks also said they were responsible for downing a Russian jet in Egypt in October after smuggling a bomb onto the plane, killing all 224 people on board.
Bomb scares
Gagey said there had been three bomb scares on Air France planes in the United States in the past 15 days.
He added that the object was found “in a small cupboard behind the mirror” in the toilet.
He said the bits of cardboard and paper and what “appeared to be a kitchen timer” were not items normally found on board.
Gagey said crew members had also indicated that in their routine check of the plane before the flight, the cupboard had been empty.
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A year ago it was “Get Brexit Done”. Then, they got and signed an “Oven ready deal” last December. All they’ve done since is complain about the deal they signed, threatened for the last 6 months to unilaterally bin it. Well done guys, great job.
@Damian Moylan: They got their Brexit and now wish they hadn’t us is my guess. In other words they were like Turkeys voting for Christmas with their oven ready deal.
@Damian Moylan: good summary of a wasted year
The next two weeks will be critical.
Looking at this from neutral point of view, there should not be a border on the Irish Sea nor should there be a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Regardless of opinion, I would assume this is acceptable to most. Can’t we just go ahead and get on with it and live normal lives, please?
@Bran Brans: That is impossible unless the UK and the EU agree to be in a single customs union together. But this is not achievable as long as the British govt is intent on pursuing a policy of Brexit purity, with preferably no ties at all to the EU (as you see the protocol itself challenges that). I’m quite sure an eventual future govt will be more pragmatic and rejoin the EU customs union, but many years will undoubtedly pass before then, and until then we’ll have to make do with the protocol, which gives precedence to the principle that there’ll be no land border.
@Bran Brans: Why should there not be a border in the Irish Sea since there is an actual sea between NI and GB. Can you give a practical reason why, as in how the day to day lives of people in NI are affected by there being a border in the Irish Sea compared to an open land border between two jurisdictions with different standards and practices in goods and services?
@David F. Dwyer: from a UK point of view there is no border between English and Scotland or Wales so why should there be one between NI and the rest of the UK. That is like saying we could be divided by a border along the river Shannon i.e. the same logic. The actual illogical part is not having a border between the two sovereign states that share this island. Yes I know ideally we should have a United Ireland and no border and it will happen some day and then it is appropriate to have a border in the Irish sea. But again to look at it differently, it is like saying Kerry gold products cannot cross the Kerry border or indeed that we cannot ship headache tablets to the Arran Islands. An Irish sea border is an internal border in one sovereign state, and that is the issue..
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I add that if people cannot see the issue they are ill equipped to discuss solutions. Personally the unique position of Northern Ireland nearly demands an Irish sea border and NI benefits in a manner that is unique giving it UK and EU market access at little if any cost. But we have to sell that idea to the UK government and others.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: UK point of view? I asked him for a pragmatic reason not rhetoric; England, Scotland and Wales are in the jurisdiction (for now anyway) and do not share a land border with an EU state. How they feel about it is entirely beside the point.
Christmas what year ?????
Chess masters
@Patrick Fitzgibbon: Carlsen and Nepo, agreed.
@Patrick Fitzgibbon: they’re not even playing draughts
See those three their a pair of cuxts
@Alan Kelly: they’re
@Hugh Morris: gracias mi amigo
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