Air France Flight 55 diverted to Halifax on 'false alert' bomb threat

No explosives werefound aboard two separateAir France planes that werediverted to Halifax and Salt Lake Citydue to bomb threats, according to the airline.

Authorities in both cities thoroughly inspectedboth aircraft, passengersand their luggage, and nothing was found, according to an Air France release.

The airline said the bomb threat that ledto the diversion of Flight 55to HalifaxStanfieldInternational Airportwas a "false alert."

The bomb threats werereceived by telephone shortly after Flight55leftWashington, D.C., forParis on Tuesday.

An investigation is underway to determine the source of that phone call, Air France says.

As well, the airline says:

• Passengers grounded in Halifax will be put on Flight 4093to continue their journey. The flightwas originally scheduled to depart Halifaxat 7 p.m. today, but has been delayed until 3:45 a.m. Thursday.
• Passengers aboard theplane that was diverted to Salt Lake City have already arrived in France.

The company says thepassengers in Halifax are being accommodated.

Two hundred and sixty-twopassengers and crew were aboardthe Boeing 777 when it landed in Halifax around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.

RCMPsearched the plane using police dogs trained to detectexplosives. Shortly after 3 a.m., no explosives were found in a search of the plane and luggage. The plane was released from police custody.

It took an hour and 15 minutes to remove passengers by buses provided byHalifax Transit.

The main runway at Halifax's airport was reopened at 4:15 a.m. Wednesday and the planewas moved to a gate.

Air France flight diverted to Halifax

9 years ago

Duration 0:40

Another plane was diverted to Salt Lake City due to an anonymous threat that was phoned in

There are no plans to increase security at the Halifax Stanfield airport, according to spokeswoman Ashley Gallant.

"We are always very vigilant here with our security program. We take direction from our partners, whether it be the RCMP or CSIS,for example, whether we up our security," she said. "If they notify us to increase our security measures, we will. Up at this point, there hasn't been, so we will continue to monitor the situation and work with those partners."

Peter Spurway,a spokesmanfor the airport,said the passengers and crew aboard Flight 55 were taken to "a secure area in the airport terminal."

All were interviewed by RCMP.

Spurway said the airport was trying tomake passengers as comfortable as possible. Air Canada, on behalf of Air France, helped find accommodations overnight for the passengers and crew.

Spurway said the Halifax airport is prepared to deal with diversions, addingit had already handledthree or four diverted flights this month.

This was Flight55's flight path, showing it being diverted to Halifax.