Turkish Airlines plane en route to Sao Paulo lands in Casablanca over bomb scare

ISTANBUL

A Turkish Airlines (THY) plane flying from Istanbul to Brazil made an emergency landing in Morocco’s Casablanca on March 30 after a bomb threat, which proved to be fake, the company has said.

A search on the Boeing 777-300ER plane bound for Sao Paulo discovered the threat was false and the plane was being allowed to continue on its route, the company added.

The flight was “diverted to Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport,” the company said in a statement. The plane, which left Istanbul at 9:30 a.m., landed in Casablanca at 3.30 p.m.

“The necessary investigation onboard has now been terminated and it has become clear that the notice in question was untrue.”

A written note warning of a bomb had been found in one of the plane’s lavatories.

It was found by a member of the cabin crew who then alerted the pilot. Upon being alerted, the pilot decided to ask for permission to land at the nearest possible airport.

THY said the plane would now continue its journey to Sao Paulo.

“Our passengers will be retaken onboard and the flight will continue to Sao Paolo after the termination of cleaning and refueling processes and after the provision of necessary permissions,” it said.

The incident came a day after a plane bound for Tokyo returned to Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport early on March 29, after a message “C-4 Cargo” was discovered by the cabin crew in the lavatory.

The cabin crew noticed the suspicious message and immediately notified the pilot, shortly after departing at 1:30 a.m. on March 29. The plane circled around the Black Sea airspace and landed back at the airport around 4:30 a.m.

A passenger on a THY plane flying to the Turkmenistan capital Ashkhabad from Istanbul had caused panic in mid-November 2014 after shouting that he had a bomb attached to his body, showing a lump concealed under his clothes that later turned out to be a liquor bottle.