April 22, 2008
A bomb scare involving an Air Europa passenger jet in Venezuela was a false alarm, authorities said on Monday, after explosives experts searched the plane.
The privately owned Air Europa plane flew out of the main airport just outside the capital of Caracas and headed for Madrid after the all-clear, Venezuela’s airline association said.
Late on Sunday, as the plane stood on the tarmac set for takeoff, anonymous telephone callers warned a bomb was aboard, prompting airport security officials to bring the passengers off the aircraft and search it and the luggage for a bomb.
Flight disruptions due to bomb threats are relatively rare in Venezuela. In the last major incident, the main airport on the country’s Caribbean tourist island of Margarita was shut down and cordoned off for a few hours last year after a bomb threat that also turned out to be a false alarm.
(Reuters)