An Airbus passenger jet from Russian airline Aeroflot, carrying 253 persons, landed safely at Keflavík International Airport at 6:30 am this morning. The captain requested permission to land after receiving notice of explosives onboard the plane.
Keflavík International Airport. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
The request was made at 5:30 am when the plane was positioned near the southwestern corner of the country en route to Moscow from New York, visir.is reports.
According to the BBC, American authorities had informed the captain that there were bombs in five bags onboard the plane and that they were set to detonate as soon as it landed in Moscow.
All contingency and accident prevention plans were activated at Keflavík with the police, ambulances and firefighters in position and the control center of the Civic Protection Department in Reykjavík manned.
The aircraft was originally scheduled to land at Keflavík at 6:15 am but due to foggy conditions, the landing was delayed by 15 minutes.
As soon as the plane touched down, it was taken to an isolated area where all passengers disembarked and then the search for the explosives began. The case is now in the hands of the police chief in Suðurnes.
There were some delays to regular flight schedules due to the incident.
ESA
