Air France passengers under probe over midair bomb scare that forced emergency landing at Mombasa

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said Sunday several passengers aboard the Air France plane that was diverted to Mombasa airport following a bomb scare were being interrogated.

Nkaissery, who flew to Mombasa early Sunday, said the plane had been removed from the runway and investigators were working in liaison with officials in Mauritius and France.

“Ongoing investigations will determine whether the gadget found is a bomb. Investigators are working in liaison with France and Mauritius,” Nkaissery said.

“A number of passengers are still under interrogation,” he added.

The minister who was accompanied by his PS Monica Juma also visited other passengers who were booked into hotels in the North Coast.

Other sources said at least four passengers are now being treated as persons of interest in the probe.

The airport was reopened and normal flights resumed Sunday morning.

The Air France plane was enroute Paris from Mauritius and made an emergency landing in Mombasa after a suspicious device was found in the lavatory.

The Boeing 777 Flight 463 was heading to Charles de Gaulle in Paris when the pilots requested an emergency landing at the Moi International Airport at 12.37 am Sunday.

It had 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board and had left Mauritius at 9 pm.

“It requested an emergency landing when a device suspected to be an explosive was discovered in the lavatory,” Police Spokesman Charles Owino said.

He added all passengers were safely evacuated and the device taken out.

A witness said a passenger went to toilet and came back informing the crew he had spotted a device. The crew later informed the captain who decided to make an emergency landing.

He said an investigation on the device had been launched to “determine if the device had explosives.”

“Experts from the (Kenya) Navy and the CID are dismantling and analyzing the device,” said police.

The airline said another plane would pick up the passengers.

“This Mombasa - Paris flight is scheduled to leave in the late afternoon of Sunday, December 20,” it said.