Air France flight makes emergency landing in Kenya over bomb scare

Authorities in Kenya are examining a suspect package that forced an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris to make an emergency landing in Kenya.

The pilots of the Boeing 777 requested to land at Moi International Airport in the capital Mombasa after the suspect item was found in a toilet.

Both the aircraft and airport were safely evacuated while the item was removed from the plane.

Authorities in Kenya said they were questioning several passengers.

“Bomb experts from the Navy and DCI (Directorate of Criminal Investigations) have retrieved the device and are determining whether the components contained explosives,” the government said in a statement.

Joseph Nkaissery, cabinet secretary at Kenya’s ministry of interior, said authorities from France and Mauritius were helping with the investigation.

“We are in touch with Mauritius to know how security screening of passengers was done,” Mr Nkaissery said. “A few passengers are being interrogated,” he added.

Passengers queued for buses after being taken off the aircraft

Flights have now resumed from Moi International Airport, Kenya’s airport authority said.

The plane was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew members and had left Mauritius at 01:00 GMT, Mr Owino said.

It had been due to fly directly to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

One of those on board, Benoit Lucchini, said passengers were calm and were told by the crew that the plane was being diverted because of a technical problem.

“The plane just went down, slowly, slowly, slowly, so we just realised probably, something was wrong,” he said.

“But the personnel of Air France were just great, just wonderful. So they keep everybody calm and really quiet.” -BBC.