False Bomb Threatened EgyptAir A330-220 Flight, Resumes Journey To China

Posted by African Examiner Africa, Latest Headlines, World News Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

URGENCH, UZBEKISTAN (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – An EgyptAir flight A330-220 which was forced to land Wednesday in Uzbekistan due to a false bomb threat has been cleared and directed to resume its journey from Cairo to Beijing, the People’s Republic of China capital.

On landing at Urgench International Airport., the entire 118 passengers and 17 crew on board of the Airbus were evacuated.

The plane was thereafter searched by Uzbek security forces but in the end, no explosive device was found; Egyptian officials confirmed.

In a statement issued after the incident by the Uzbekistan Airways, the flight eventually touched down at Urgench – a distance of about 840km (600 miles) west of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, at 03:00 GMT (08:00 Tashkent time).

It was confirmed that the aircraft was evacuated, searched and the result of the search was negative.

Egyptian officials confirmed that the plane resumed its journey to Beijing about four hours after landing in Urgench. Chinese news agency, Xinhua, also admitted that bomb threat was a “hoax”.

While confirming the development, the Chairman of EgyptAir, Safwat Mussallam, confirmed that Flight MS955 left Cairo at 21:55 GMT (23:55 Cairo time) on Tuesday and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 07:34 GMT (15:34 Beijing time) on Wednesday.

During the flight, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents in Cairo to say a bomb was on board the aircraft and the Pilot was told to land at the nearest airport.

It would be recalled an EgyptAir flight three weeks ago, while flying from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers on board crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.

While cause of the crash still remains a mystery, the French investigators hinted last week that signals from one of the flight’s black boxes had been detected about 290km (180 miles north) of the Egyptian coast.