The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: EC on May 24, 2013, 01:10:51 pm
-
Sky News Newsdesk @SkyNewsBreak 5m
RAF fighter jets are escorting a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane which has been diverted from Manchester to Stansted airport
Only a tweet thus far. Looking for more info.
-
NewsBreaker @NewsBreaker 27s
DEVELOPING: British jets scrambled to investigate an incident in UK airspace - @BBCNews. @SkyNews says involving a Pakistani plane.
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22658979#TWEET767052
Nothing much at the moment, but it will be updated as information comes in.
-
http://news.sky.com/story/1095214/fighter-jets-escorting-passenger-plane-to-stansted
RAF fighter jets have escorted a Pakistan Interntional Airlines aircraft from Manchester Airport to Stansted Airport.
The airline has confirmed it is for security reasons. There are understood to be 297 passengers on board.
The plane was heading west towards Manchester when it was suddenly re-routed near York and headed back out to the North Sea, before travelling south to Stansted.
It is believed to have now landed at the airport.
More follows...
-
http://news.sky.com/story/1095039/plane-on-fire-flying-over-central-london
Plane 'On Fire' Flying Over Central London
Almost 200 flights have been cancelled at Heathrow after a plane made an emergency landing with flames seen coming from an engine.
A British Airways plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport as eyewitnesses reported seeing the aircraft "on fire" flying over central London.
A man who only gave his first name as Jamie told Sky News: "As you looked up you could just see the flames being chucked out of the engine ... It was on full fire when we saw it."
Video and images at that link
-
There is a video on that link from inside the plane from a passenger sitting next to the wing windows. It looks like a major engine malfunction.
http://news.sky.com/story/1095039/plane-on-fire-flying-over-central-london
-
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2013-05-24/raf-typhoon-jet-pia-pakistan-international-airways-plane-diverted-manchester-to-stansted/
Updated as things come in.
(http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/209741/image_update_da38568d7eebefc9_1369400795_9j-4aaqsk.jpeg)
Stansted is our designated counter terrorism airport for the South East.
-
There is a video on that link from inside the plane from a passenger sitting next to the wing windows. It looks like a major engine malfunction.
http://news.sky.com/story/1095039/plane-on-fire-flying-over-central-london
Different incident. That is the BA flight that shut down Heathrow this morning.
-
Different incident. That is the BA flight that shut down Heathrow this morning.
Wow, thanks. 2 in one day is odd. I thought the differences were just the usual media scrambling over themselves to be the first with the story.
-
Wife works for BA - she called in to see if she was needed for customer support. They had enough volunteers.
-
NewsBreaker @NewsBreaker 5m
DEVELOPING: Pilot of Pakistani flight became "concerned about unruly passenger & requested diversion" as a precaution. - @dansabbagh
-
A divert is not unusual.
Guess we are all on edge at the moment.
-
https://twitter.com/Daninthebuslane/status/337920554646523904/photo/1
A secondary reminder. Our cops do NOT eff around.
-
Essex Police @EssexPoliceUK 3m
Police have boarded plane diverted to Stansted Airport + arrested 2 men on suspicion of endangerment of aircraft http://goo.gl/JKlZ6
-
Via al Jazeera:
UK arrests two men on Pakistan flight
UK jets divert passenger plane flying from Pakistan to Stansted after threat call to air traffic control.
Two British men have been arrested after fighter jets were launched to divert a civilian plane carrying nearly 300 passengers from Pakistan to England after a threat call was made to air traffic control.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Friday that the Typhoons were launched from RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, to investigate an incident involving a civilian aircraft.
The civilian plane was diverted from Manchester Airport to Stansted Airport, which is used to handle security incidents on planes, after the men allegedly threatened to destroy the plane.
British security forces and police said that early indications suggest the plane had not be subject to a terror attack.
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from London, said the men, aged 30 and 41, had been arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.
"The plane is safely on the ground and has been isolated in a part of the airport away from passenger planes," our correspondent said.
"It does seem that the initial fears surrounding this incident are starting to calm down a bit."
Our correspondent said that concerns were raised about the flight about ten minutes before it was due to land after a threat call was made to the UK's air traffic control.
Pakistan International Airlines confirmed that Flight P709, travelling from Lahore to Manchester, was involved.
-
Any idea what they actually did to "endanger" the aircraft?
-
According to some unconfirmed reports, they persistently tried to enter the cockpit. The police have not yet released a statement.