Taipei to Hong Kong flight delayed after passenger shouts “bomb”
A flight from Taipei Taoyuan International Airport was delayed for four hours today after a passenger shouted that there was a bomb on the plane shortly before take off.
The Hong Kong Airlines plane had taxied to the runway, and was scheduled to take off at 12:25pm when a woman suddenly stood up and shouted in Cantonese, “there’s a bomb on the plane…it’s not safe.”
Cabin crew contacted the flight captain, who immediately informed the control tower that he was aborting take off.
The plane returned to the apron, where aviation police boarded the plane and took the woman, a Hong Kong citizen, and a male companion, into custody. Passengers were disembarked while the aircraft was subject to a thorough security check.
Baggage was unloaded and passed through security again before being reloaded.
Passengers were finally able to re-board, and flight HX253 took off at around 4:30pm.
Aviation police sent the woman who shouted “bomb” to the district prosecutor’s office to face charges of violating the Civil Aviation Law.
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