Pakistan International Airlines Get Bomb Threats

A plane owned by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) with 164 passengers has landed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur after receiving a bomb warning. The incident came just minutes after another PIA flight to England was forced to land in Istanbul, Turkey, because of a bomb threat.

Scheduled flights from the city of Lahore, Pakistan, to the capital city of Malaysia landed at 21:24 local time (14:24 GMT) on Wednesday (09/07/2011), and airport authorities said the bomb threat was received when the aircraft was still in the air.

“At 20:45 local time Malaysian airport to receive information from the headquarters of the Pakistan International Flight bomb warning Airbus 313 aircraft on flight PK898 from Lahore,” said airport authorities in a statement.

“Flight PK898 safely landed at 21:24 local time. The airline said the plane contained 164 passengers, three crew and 10 cabin crew cockpit.”

Airport authorities said the plane had been parked in an isolated spot at the airport while police investigate.

Parties airport said all passengers had left the plane and placed in a safe room when they checked.

In a previous incident, a similar bomb warning encourage PIA plane from Lahore to Manchester to land at Istanbul Ataturk airport on Wednesday (09/07/2011).

The warning comes on when the aircraft was flying over the capital city of Sofia, Bulgaria and caused panic among passengers, the Turkish Anatolia news agency said.

A senior PIA officials confirmed that there were two bomb threats. “We received an email about the existence of two bombs on the PIA flight,” the official told AFP. “Because the flight was canceled, the pilots are directed to land at nearest airport.”

“One flight to Manchester landed in Istanbul and the second flight landed in Kuala Lumpur,” said the official who called his identity was not willing.

The official said no bomb was found during a search in the plane, according to information she received. PIA spokesman in the southern port city of Karachi could not be reached for mengontari this problem.