BBC News, 24 May 2013 Last updated at 10:35 ET
RAF Jets Scrambled To Escort Passenger Plane After Suspected Bomb Threat
Two Arrested after RAF Typhoon jets Divert & Escort Pakistan Plane over UK
The plane was diverted from Manchester to Stansted
Two men have been arrested after RAF Typhoon jets were launched to escort a passenger plane travelling from Pakistan to the UK, police have said.
Officers boarded Pakistan International Airlines flight PK709, which had been due to land at Manchester, after it was diverted to Stansted Airport to
an isolated runway.
Two men are being held on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft, Essex Police said.
Stansted Airport said nobody on board had been hurt.
The plane reportedly left Lahore - the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab - at 09:35 local time. It was due in at Manchester at 14:00 BST.
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said there was a suggestion there had been threats on board during the flight, involving some sort of weapon or bomb - although this was unconfirmed.
Emergency Signal
However, one passenger told the BBC that the pilot told them there had been threats.
Stansted Airport said the pilot had alerted the authorities to the incident, but it did not say what that incident was. Nobody had been hurt, it said.
A spokesman for the airport said passengers were being taken off the plane.
The incident is taking place amid heightened security following the murder this week of a British soldier in south-east London.
"They will be taken to a reception centre in the airport where police may wish to interview them about what they have seen," he said.
"At some point police and the airline will arrange for their onward transportation to Manchester."
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: "A Pakistan International Airlines aircraft which was due to land at Manchester Airport at 13.30 BST today has been diverted to our sister airport London Stansted, where the authorities are investigating."
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesman Zufiqar Bijarani told CNN: "We have been told there may have been a bomb threat." But he did not say if he had anything to confirm or deny this.
Spokesman Mashood Tajwar from PIA said
the airline had been unable to contact the pilot of the airplane despite repeated attempts.
PIA said there were 308 passengers on board, as well as 14 crew including pilots, with a mixture of Pakistani and British passport holders.
Stansted Airport said on Twitter that it was now operating normally.
'Serious Incident'
The MoD said responsibility for the incident had passed to Essex Police and the Home Office.
An MoD spokesman said the incident was now a police matter and that "our involvement is over".
He said Typhoon jets could be scrambled after the pilot or crew of a passenger aircraft sends out an emergency signal.
"The purpose of going up is to investigate what the situation is," he said.
"Often when a Quick Reaction Alert aircraft is launched the details are not known, but it is known that a signal has been sent.
"Part of the purpose of sending a Typhoon up is to have a look and see what they can see."
Philip Baum, of Aviation Security International, told the BBC: "This is certainly a significant incident, however the fact that fighter jets were scrambled to intercept is not unusual.
"Fighter jets are scrambled when there is a bomb threat, when there is a hijack, when the wrong transponder code is used or if an aircraft cannot communicate with the ground. Often the result is when there is an unruly passenger on board.
"What is interesting in this case is that it would appear that the aircraft was only 10 minutes from landing - these are initial reports coming in - when they decided to divert to Stansted. So to actually change a destination 10 minutes from landing would certainly imply that there was some serious incident taking place."
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