Bomb scarce forces France-bound plane to land in Kenya

An Air France flight with 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board made an emergency landing at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya on Sunday, after a bomb was found in one of the toilets.

The Boeing 777 aircraft departed Mauritius and was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

According to Charles Owino, police spokesman, all the passengers were safely evacuated, while the device was taken out.

“The plane was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board and had left Mauritius at 9pm,” Owino said.

“It requested an emergency landing when a device suspected to be an explosive was discovered in the lavatory.”

Air France said investigators are working to confirm whether it contained explosives.

The airport in Mombasa was closed during the evacuation and search process, according to a police official, who craved anonymity because “he is not authorised to brief the media”.

Kenya Airports Authority said scheduled flights to Mombasa were disrupted during the interval but that normal operations have resumed.

‘The plane just went down slowly, slowly, slowly, so we just realised probably something was wrong,” Mail Online quoted one of the passengers who identified himself as Benoit Lucchini.

He reportedly spoke to journalists after leaving the plane in Mombasa.

“The personnel of Air France were just great, they were just wonderful. So they keep everybody calm. We did not know what was happening,” he added.

“So we secured the seat belt to land in Mombasa because we thought it was a technical problem but actually it was not a technical problem.

“It was something in the toilet. Something wrong in the toilet, it could be a bomb.”