At 12:29pm Tuesday 13th May (BST), a bomb threat was called in onboard a Ryanair flight from Faro, Portugal. The plane took off from Porto Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport and landed in Brussels at 10:52am local time (09:52am BST). The threat was later regarded to be a prank, and flights were once again resumed, the U.S embassy tweeted on X. A suspect has since been arrested for the prank call in the UK.
Here is how the situation unfolded this afternoon:
After the initial bomb threat, authorities and airport staff at Brussels South Charleroi Airport quickly closed the runway, and established a 500 meter security perimeter around the plane.
According to FlightAware, the total travel time should have been 2 hours and 47 minutes. However, the Brussels Times reported that the Boeing 737 twin-jet aircraft was situated on the runway for three hours, during which time:
“a security perimeter was set up around the aircraft, which meant that the runway had to be closed and operations were interrupted”.
The closest terminal was not evacuated, as it is further away than the 500 metre evacuation zone subsequently set up.
Passengers onboard the plane recorded the moment police came onboard
In videos published by passengers on X, you can see the police board the plane quickly, combing through the plane for anything suspicious before allowing passengers to disembark. Sniffer dogs were then released on the plane. With no threat found, the plane was then readied for the next flight.
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