Bomb scare forces Greek airliner to Ireland
A Greek airliner bound for New York was diverted to Shannon Airport today, in the second bomb scare to affect the carrier Olympic Airlines in three days.
The plane was carrying 295 passengers and 12 crew, Greek police said.
The decision was taken following an anonymous call to an Athens newspaper saying a bomb was on the plane.
On Sunday, an Olympic plane also bound for New York landed at Stansted airport, near London, following a similar threat. It was escorted by RAF jet fighters.
Nothing suspicious was found.
Officials from the Greek police, the country’s civil aviation authority and Olympic Airlines held an emergency meeting to discuss the threat.
Olympic Airways spokeswoman Melina Pitta said: "The newspaper got a call at 1.45pm Irish time saying a bomb was on board and would explode in an hour. Nothing has happened.
“After a meeting it was decided the plane would make an emergency landing at Shannon as it was the nearest airport.”
David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine, said: “I fully understand why the decision to divert the plane was taken as Olympic had to take the threat seriously.
“They could not afford not to take it seriously as they were unlikely to have been able to work out whether the bomb call was a hoax or not.”
Mr Learmount went on: “Unless certain codes that can be attached to such warnings can be established, then nothing can be taken for granted. What the worry is now is that this could spark off copy-cat actions that could disrupt airline services.
“Certainly, security at Athens airport has improved immeasurably from what it used to be like, but even so you can see why Olympic would want to take no chances.”
