Mid-air terror scare 'grounds London-bound flight'

The Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi, which was scheduled to touch down at London's Heathrow airport at 12.30 PM yesterday, was forced to make the emergency landing at the Stansted airport in Essex, after a passenger sparked a terror scare by announcing he had a bomb, the 'Daily Express' said.

Two Typhoon jets launched from Royal Air Force base at Coningsby in Lincolnshire tailed the plane as it landed at 11.50 AM after the pilot alerted emergency services, the British newspaper said. One passenger, photographer Paul Childs, said the plane's captain announced a "direct verbal threat" had been made by a passenger. "A member of the cabin crew said he had made a bomb threat."

A spokeswoman for Etihad Airways said that the flight was diverted because of a "disruptive passenger who had made inappropriate comments". A police spokeswoman was quoted as saying, "A 37-year- old man, a British national, has been arrested following an incident on board an Etihad Airways plane travelling from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow. The pilot reported a passenger becoming disruptive on board and making threats."