Plane diverted to Scotland after ‘bomb threat’

Hoaxers are believed to have caused a major security alert on a budget airline after handing a note to the pilot warning of a bomb.

Flight FR25, carrying 167 passengers from Beauvais Paris to Dublin, was diverted to Prestwick Airport in Glasgow on the advice of Air Traffic Control. Three RAF Tornado F3s were scrambled to escort the Boeing 737 as it approached the runway at 2.22pm BST

The remote airport, favoured for use in emergency situations, was sealed off to passengers and planes for three hours. Nearby roads and railway services were also closed.

Police and fire crews spent almost three hours searching the jet and its baggage before allowing the airport to re-open at just after 5pm. Three coachloads of passengers, mostly in their twenties, were seen being driven from the plane to the terminal under heavy police escort. They were being questioned over the incident this evening.

In a statement, Ryanair said: “A note was passed to the cabin crew onboard claiming that there was a bomb onboard the aircraft.

“The captain immediately reported this to UK air traffic control and was instructed to divert to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. All passengers together with Ryanair are cooperating fully with the police and local safety authorities.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said that one of the Tornadoes had been on a training exercise in the area when it was ordered to assist in escorting the plane. He said that two other Tornados were scrambled from RAF Coningsby.

John Scott, a Conservative MSP whose Ayr constituency covers the airport, said: “This obviously had the potential to be a major incident and one which was taken extremely seriously by the security forces and indeed the police.

“I am extremely glad it appears to have been nothing more than a hoax, but I am disappointed about the inconvenience passengers have suffered. I’m very glad that the response has been entirely appropriate and that at the end of the day no harm has been done.”

Simon Freeman and agencies