Greek plane diverted to Ireland after bomb threat

A Greek plane carrying more than 300 people on board and heading for New York from Athens made an emergency landing in Ireland yesterday after a bomb alert - the second such incident in three days.

All the passengers were safely evacuated from the Olympic Airlines plane and the airport was operating normally, a spokeswoman said.

"At this stage, it's just a threat," the spokeswoman for state airport authority Aer Rianta said.

Police planned to search the plane, standing in a remote corner of the airfield, some time after 10 p.m. (2100 GMT).

If given the all clear, the aircraft is not expected to resume its journey until this morning.

The Airbus A340, carrying 295 passengers and 12 crew, was diverted to Shannon Airport, southwestern Ireland, after a local newspaper in Greece received a call at about 3.45 p.m. (1245 GMT) saying a bomb on the plane would explode in an hour.

On Sunday, a bomb threat forced another Olympic passenger plane on the same scheduled daily Athens-New York service to make an emergency landing at London's Stansted Airport.

A search turned up nothing and the plane was allowed to take off on Monday.

Greek police said they doubted there was a bomb on board. "We just don't believe there could have been a bomb on the plane today (Tuesday)," a Greek police official told Reuters. "It is impossible."

"All the luggage went through X-ray machinery, was checked by bomb sniffer dogs and was escorted to the plane and loaded under police supervision," the official said.

Shannon, the last land stop before planes from Europe reach the US coast, is often the venue for diverted planes.