Two men were being questioned by police yesterday after a passenger plane was diverted from Manchester to Stansted Airport.

They were held on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft after an RAF Typhoon jet was scrambled to escort the plane which was travelling from Pakistan to the UK.

Officers boarded Pakistan International Airlines flight PK709 and removed men aged 30 and 41 from the plane.

Early indications were that there was a fight on board and the incident was not terrorism-related.

The RAF jet was scrambled following an incident around 10 minutes before the plane, which departed from Lahore, was due to land in Manchester at 2pm. According to one of the passengers, the aircraft’s cabin crew said two men had repeatedly tried to get into the cockpit.

Umari Nauman told Sky News: “The cabin crew informed us that basically they tried to come into the cockpit a few times and because they had been asked not to do that they got into a bit of an argument with the crew and made a few threats.”

She said all the passengers were ordered to leave their possessions on board before leaving the plane.

An airport source said it was thought a fight led to the aircraft being diverted. The plane remained at a spot on the north side of Stansted Airport with flights carrying on as normal.

It is believed a passenger on the flight allegedly threatened to blow up the plane after other pas-sengers tried to intervene in a row he was embroiled in.

Murtaza Ali Shah, a journalist, said he had spoken to a friend on board the plane, Fakhir Iqbal, a political activist, who was sitting behind the man who made the threat.

Mr Shah said his friend told him: “Two guys started a row with a girl and lots of other people.

“Some people tried to calm them and asked them not to be rowdy and abusive. Fakhir told them to calm down. They said ‘don’t bloody speak to us or we will blow up the plane’.

“The crew came and spoke to them and they were openly threatening the staff.

“Fakhir went to other crew members and told them they were making threats.” (AP)

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