Bomb hoax on easyJet *

Passengers on an easyJet flight from Gatwick to Menorca were alarmed when a warplane appeared on the starboard side.

A Spanish F-18 fighter had been scrambled to escort the plane when the threat was seen on social media as it approached the island.

Aditya Verma, an 18-year-old Briton, who was travelling with five friends to the island of Menorca, has been bailed for £8,000 and banned from leaving Spain.

Video of the incident showed an F-18 jet flying close to the orange wingtips of the Airbus A319. The fighter jet waggled its wings, indicating that the other pilot should follow him.

In the clip passengers can be heard discussing what was happening, with one woman asking: “Why is it doing that, is it just showing off?” Military planes intercept civilian aircraft when air traffic control loses contact with them or when there is a threat to the aircraft or passengers because of a bomb warning, suspicious object or terrorist activity.

The easyJet flight landed safely at Menorca airport about half an hour late and was escorted to a security area. The teenager was arrested and passengers were disembarked one by one and asked to identify their luggage before checks by sniffer dogs and bomb disposal experts, the civil guard said. Other flights out of Menorca were disrupted by the incident.

The Times recalled that in 2020 a British airline passenger was jailed for causing a bomb scare on his scheduled flight because he was running late. Rashidul Islam (32) called police 45 minutes before his easyJet flight from Gatwick to Marrakesh was due to take off after his train was cancelled and his taxi was stuck in traffic. The aircraft was evacuated and all 147 passengers had to be rechecked by security. This cost the airline an estimated £30,000 and resulted in a three-hour delay. He received a 16-month jail sentence.  The cost is likely to be much higher this time with the Air Force call out, easyJet costs, and Spanish handling charges.

www.easyjet.com

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David Starkie, United Kingdom

Seems as though it was all handled pretty efficiently. Congrats to the Spanish authorities.