A Greek trans-Atlantic jet with more than 300 people on board was forced to divert to Shannon Airport late yesterday following a phone call to a Greek newspaper claiming there was a bomb on board. Nothing was found.
The aircraft in yesterday's incident was the same one which was escorted by two RAF fighter jets to Stansted Airport in England on Sunday following a similar threat. That also turned out to be a false alert.
Olympic Airlines Flight 411 left Athens at 11.13 a.m. Irish time yesterday and was en route to Kennedy International Airport, New York, when the captain was notified by the airline's headquarters of a claim that there was a bomb on board. The aircraft was carrying 295 passengers and a crew of 12.
Shortly after 4 p.m. fire crews from Ennis and Shannon, as well as a fleet of ambulances, were scrambled to Shannon to assist Aer Rianta's own fire service. Just under an hour later the Airbus 340-300 touched down safely.
Flanked by eight fire trucks, the aircraft was escorted to a remote taxiway where passengers disembarked. They were then taken to the terminal where gardaí interviewed each person.
Insp Tom Kennedy said: "No one has reported seeing anything suspicious on board the plane and no one saw any person acting strangely. We also reconciled each passenger with their passport and seat number and that went very well.
"Every passenger was re-screened by security personnel and gardaí at Shannon while all hand luggage was also double-checked."
Flight 411 took off from Athens at 13:13 p.m. local time, and two hours later an unidentified caller telephoned the Athens newspaper Eleftherotypia, saying a bomb was on board and would explode in an hour.
It has been reported but not confirmed that an airline spokesman said that US authorities had refused permission for the aircraft to land at JFK.
At least one person was taken from the aircraft on a stretcher, but according to a Mid Western Health Board spokesman no one was admitted to hospital. It is understood that several wheelchair passengers on board were competitors travelling back to the US from the Paralympics in Athens.
The flight was due to leave Shannon late last night.