Flight 463 is Air France’s third plane to be diverted in recent weeks.
Two other Air France flights from the US to Paris were diverted on November 18 after bomb threats were received but no bombs were found.
On October 31 this year, a home-made bomb brought down the Metrojet airliner over Egypt’s Sinai desert, killing 224 people on board.
ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility. Last year, the US warned that terrorists were plotting to use new stealth bombs in laptops and even humans to bring down a US-bound passenger plane.
Airport security was increased across the UK, US and other countries amid fears that Al-Qaeda bomb experts had successfully designed a new explosive that can bypass current checks.
They were believed to be targeting the thousands of Western jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq as would-be suicide bombers.
The threat, which originated from US intelligence, had an immediate impact at British airports where passengers were subjected to more stringent and rigorous security checks.
In November 27, 1989 Avianca Flight 203 a Boeing 727 flying from Bogota to Cali was bombed, killing 107 people plus a possible three on the ground.
The bombing was planned by Pablo Escobar of the Medellin drug cartel. The motive was an assassination attempt on presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, but the target was not on the flight.
On September 19, 1989, UTA Flight 772 was downed over Niger by a bomb, killing all 156 passengers and 15 crew members.
After investigators obtained a confession from one of those who had loaded the bomb in Brazzaville, France indicted six Libyans, including Abdullah Senussi, brother-in-law of Muammar al-Gaddfi, and deputy head of Libyan intelligence.
Libya refused to extradite the six, who were condemned in absentia, but subsequently recognised its responsibility by compensating the families of the victims.
The deemed motive of the bomber was revenge against the French for supporting Chad against the expansionist projects of Libya towards Chad.
On December 21, 1988 Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Boeing 747, a transatlantic flight was destroyed in-flight by PETN explosives, killing 270 people.
Suitcase parts containing the bomb were recovered with pieces of circuit board of a radio cassette player similar to one concealing a Semtex bomb seized by West German police from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Motive attributed to a number of Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Two Libyan intelligence operatives were committed in connection with the attack.
In 1976 a bomb exploded at a cargo bay of a Boeing 720B en route from Beirut, Lebanon to Dubai. The bombers were never identified. Lebanon was enduring a civil war at the time.
