Yet another EgyptAir scare in the skies

AS soon as EgyptAir were advised on June 8 that their Airbus A330 aircraft, flight MS955 travelling from Cairo to Beijing was carrying a bomb, they immediately obtained permission for the aircraft to be diverted to Uzbekistan for an emergency landing.

All 118 passengers and 17 crew were safely evacuated and security staff undertook a sweep of the aircraft without, at the time of writing, finding any suspect packages and the airline is tentatively declaring this a false alarm.

Considering the problems that EgyptAir has experienced in the past few months, most recently with the crash in the Mediterranean and the loss of 66 passengers and crew in May, it is quite understandable that the airline should be so sensitive to any threats, but equally, it becomes an easy target for those wishing to disrupt its operations with false reports.