My World Earth: Passenger on Heathrow bomb threat charge

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Passenger on Heathrow bomb threat charge

Police said three men aged 58, 48 and 36 were arrested.

Armed police boarded the Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai, on the runway and arrested three men aged 58, 48 and 36 after passengers raised the alarm.
Scotland Yard later said that they had been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat.

A passenger has been charged with making a bomb threat that grounded a packed jet at Heathrow Airport, police said.
Robert Fowles, 58, from Dover, Kent, is accused of a bomb hoax and being drunk on an aircraft, the Metropolitan Police said.
Alexander McGinn, 48, and also from Dover, has also been charged with being drunk on an aircraft.
Armed police boarded the Dubai-bound Emirates flight as it was taxiing for take off on Saturday night, after remarks were made to cabin crew.

Fowles, who lives in Edred Road, Dover, will appear from custody at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday.

The charges in detail are making a bomb hoax/communicate false information contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977 and being drunk on an aircraft contrary to the Civil Aviation Act 1982.
McGinn, of Lowther Road, has been bailed and will appear at the same court on January 22. He was also charged with being drunk on an aircraft contrary to the Civil Aviation Act 1982.
A third passenger on board the plane who was arrested - a man aged 36 - was released without charge, police said.

More than 330 passengers were on the Boeing 777 at the time of the alert. They had to leave the aircraft while officers carried out a search.
Police later said they did not find any dangerous substances aboard. Emirates arranged hotel accommodation for stranded travellers overnight and they were allowed to depart on the aircraft on Sunday.

Armed officers stormed a plane at London's Heathrow airport as it was about to depart for Dubai and arrested three men on suspicion of making a bomb threat, police said Saturday.

The Emirates flight was preparing to take off late Friday when a "verbal threat" was made to staff, London's Metropolitan Police Service said.

"Police were alerted and armed officers boarded the plane," a police statement said.

"Three men aged 58, 48 and 36 were arrested and are now in police custody. They have been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat."

A photograph purportedly taken inside the aircraft showed police in black overalls, and a passenger said officers brandishing guns in body armour burst onto the plane and hauled the suspects away.

Sky News television, which broadcast the grainy picture from the plane, said the men arrested were English and appeared to be drunk.

The alert came amid heightened security at airports around the world following an alleged attempt by a young Nigerian to bomb a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day by concealing explosives in his underwear.

Passenger Cameron McLean, who Sky said supplied them with the photograph, told the broadcaster: "Some special police just came on the plane and arrested these two guys a few rows in front of me.

"The police just swarmed the guy and then rushed him out. I think he was a white male," he said.

The passenger added there were about five armed officers who were wearing helmets, body armour and carrying what appeared to be automatic weapons.

The Metropolitan Police said they were alerted after the threat was made at around 9:15 pm (2115 GMT) on Friday.

They said passengers had been removed from the plane and the aircraft was being searched. The airport -- one of the world's busiest air hubs -- remained open, police added.

A spokesman for airport operator BAA said the incident had only affected the Dubai-bound plane.

Emirates said officers boarded the plane after "remarks" made as Flight EK004 was preparing to depart.

"The safety and security of all our passengers is paramount," the airline added.

The security scare came after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, allegedly tried to detonate a device stitched into his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam as it landed in the United States on December 25.

In a court in Detroit on Friday, he pleaded not guilty to six charges related to the incident, which has led to security being stepped at airports worldwide.

Full-body scanners are to be introduced at Britain's airports and Heathrow will be the first to receive the devices before the end of the month, Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
----------