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EgyptAir plane 'lands in Uzbekistan after bomb threat' EgyptAir jet lands in Uzbekistan after hoax bomb threat
(about 1 hour later)
An EgyptAir plane flying from Cairo to Beijing has been forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat, Uzbekistan Airways says. An EgyptAir plane that was forced to land in Uzbekistan due to a hoax bomb threat has been cleared to resume its journey from Cairo to Beijing.
All 118 passengers and 17 crew on board the Airbus A330-220 were evacuated at Urgench International Airport, in the east of the country, a statement said. All 118 passengers and 17 crew on board the Airbus A330-220 were evacuated at Urgench International Airport.
The aircraft was being searched by local authorities, it added. The aircraft was searched by Uzbek security forces but no explosive device was found, Egyptian officials said.
Last month, an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. Three weeks ago, an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
The cause of the crash remains a mystery, although French investigators said a week ago that signals from one of the plane's black boxes had been detected. The cause of the crash remains a mystery, although Egyptian officials have said an act of terrorism is more likely than a technical failure.
There has so far been no comment from EgyptAir on Wednesday's incident. French investigators said last week that signals from one of the plane's black boxes had been detected about 290km (180 miles north) of the Egyptian coast.
But unnamed Egyptian officials told the Associated Press news agency that an anonymous caller had telephoned security agents at Cairo's airport to say a bomb was on board the flight to Beijing. 'Anonymous caller'
The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and told it to land at the nearest airport, they said. The chairman of EgyptAir, Safwat Mussallam, told the AFP news agency that Flight MS955 left Cairo at 21:55 GMT (23:55 Cairo time) on Tuesday and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 07:34 GMT (15:34 Beijing time) on Wednesday.
It eventually touched down at Urgench, about 840km (600 miles) west of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, at about 23:30 local time (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday, three hours after it took off from Cairo, AP reported. During the flight, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents in Cairo to say a bomb was on board the aircraft and the pilot was told to land at the nearest airport.
An Egyptian aviation source told Reuters news agency that no explosives had been found by Uzbek security forces and that the plane was "preparing to resume its journey". The plane eventually touched down at Urgench, about 840km (600 miles) west of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, at 03:00 GMT (08:00 Tashkent time) on Wednesday, Uzbekistan Airways said in a statement.
"The aircraft was evacuated, searched and the result of the search was negative, we were told by the Uzbek authorities, who gave us the authorisation to take off again," Mr Mussallam said.
"We must take any warning seriously," he added.
Egyptian officials told the Associated Press news agency that the plane resumed its journey to Beijing about four hours after landing in Urgench.
The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, also said the bomb threat was a hoax.