A plane with tourists on board, which was on a flight from the British East Midlands to Antalya, Turkey, did not take off from its destination as scheduled due to an explosion threat from one of the passengers. He was later detained by special forces, and all the tourists were disembarked screaming to check the ship for a bomb.
The incident happened on the evening of August 21 in front of terrified passengers when Jet2 flight LS653, bound for Turkey, was due to take off at 4.45 pm but was forced to stop at East Midlands Airport. The reason is the statement of one of the passengers about the presence of an explosive device on board. The police promptly responded to this alarming call.
Videos posted by eyewitnesses on social media showed armed police officers entering the plane and ordering the man to put his hands up and walk to the exit. He was followed by his wife, whose head was covered with a scarf. Despite the tension of the events, as a result of the search of the plane, fortunately, no bomb was found. Leicestershire Police stressed that the threat turned out to be “unreal”.
One of the tourists, who was in the cabin at that time, said the following: “We were supposed to leave at 5:35 p.m. I was flying alone with my two little boys playing on their phones. The whole plane went into a state of alarm. There were about two dozen policemen there.
Later, according to the police report, the man was arrested on suspicion of possession of explosives, but after searching the plane and checking the situation, he was released on bail. However, the investigation is ongoing, and the carrier apologized to passengers for the inconvenience caused by the incident and said that the flight successfully departed after the offender disembarked.