Ryanair plane lands at Athens airport after ‘bomb alert’
(Picture: REUTERS)Greek warplanes were scrambled Sunday to escort a Ryanair flight from Poland to Greece after a possible bomb alert.
Police searched a Ryanair flight that landed at Athens International Airport on Sunday evening for any suspicious items, but did not find anything.
The pilot of the Boeing 737 aircraft, with around 190 passengers on crew on board, had earlier raised an alarm over a possible explosive device, according to Greek police.
The flight operated by Buzz, a Polish subsidiary of Ryanair, arrived at the airport around 3.40pm GMT after being escorted through Greek airspace by two Hellenic Air Force F-16 fighters.
The Boeing left Poland just over two hours late, flight tracking data shows
Police searched passengers as they disembarked the flight, with their luggage lined up outside the aircraft.
The plane was diverted over the sea as a precaution as it approached Athens.
Piotr Adamczyk, public relations manager at Katowice airport in Poland, told the AFP news agency they had received a telephone warning as the plane was flying over Slovakia.
“After the plane took off, there was a call to the airport information centre concerning the possible presence of an explosive device on board,” he said.
“We contacted air traffic control, which subsequently contacted the pilots”.
