A missing iphone which triggered a search on airline passengers and delayed a flight by 90 minutes this afternoon, actually went missing last week.

The Air Malta flight from Malta to Manchester, which had been due to take off at 3.30 p.m., was delayed to 5 p.m. when the police asked all passengers to disembark so that a search could be carried out.

Phone owner JeanPaul Azzopardi told timesofmalta.com the phone was stolen in Floriana last week but was emitting its position on its 'find my iphone' app.

It was briefly detected in two localities over the past days, and this afternoon it was detected outside the departures lounge and then during boarding of the Manchester-bound plane.

The passengers were disembarked and a search was conducted but the police were still unable to find the phone or the thief. The plane was also searched, to no avail, and Mr Azzopardi said it may have been switched off and hidden.

Mr Azzopardi said he was grateful to the police and regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers.

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