TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taoyuan International Airport closed its south runway on Wednesday at noon (April 26) after receiving a message about a bomb hidden on an Air China flight.
SETNews reported that the Air China flight CA185 departed Beijing at 8:25 a.m. and landed at Taoyuan International Airport at around 11:45 a.m. 103 passengers and 15 crew members were aboard the aircraft.
After the airport received the report at around 11:30 a.m., it asked the flight to be parked on the south runway, which was closed for an investigation of the aircraft. At 1:30 p.m., the Aviation Police Bureau finished searching the aircraft and declared it free of explosives.
Passengers were transported to the terminal via bus for immigration after a security check. One passenger surnamed Lin (林) told the media that he did not hear about the possible presence of an explosive on the flight at all, nor were there announcements on board.
The passengers spent around two hours waiting on the aircraft and were reportedly calm and orderly.
Yahoo News cited the bureau’s chief Chiou Wen-liang (邱文亮) as saying the message was sent to a passenger service email address. The bureau is investigating the sender’s IP address.
