Passengers aboard the plane – which was flying from Cardiff to the Canary Islands – were swept off the aircraft by bomb squads and investigators after a letter was recovered
A planeload of passengers were removed from a flight by bomb squad officials after a threatening note was discovered in the TUI aircraft’s bathroom.
Spain’s Civil Guard was activated after a crew member handed the letter to the pilot of the Cardiff-Canary Islands flight BY6422 as it flew over Portugal. The plane was diverted to César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport, where it was met with bomb specialists from the GEDEX (Explosives Deactivation Group) and a host of other specialised units after an emergency was declared. The Fiscal and Border Section of the Guardia Civil were also called to the scen alongside investigation units and citizen security patrols.
The Canarian Weekly reported that Air traffic controllers later confirmed in a post on social media that passengers were asked to identify their luggage.
Controllers writing on one X account said: “The plane has been guided with the presence of firefighters to a siding where the passengers have had to identify their luggage.
“Landing and takeoff operations have been temporarily interrupted, which has caused some delays.”
Despite the full-on response, officials eventually discovered there was no explosive device aboard, and local police have now launched an urgent investigation to determine who wrote the letter found in the bathroom.
Sources told La Voz de Lanzarote that the aircraft raised the alarm about a possible bomb, but the alert was ultimately cancelled once it was determined there was no credible threat.
While the incident was quickly resolved following the alert this morning, departures at the Lanzarote airport were delayed as investigators worked at the scene.