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BREAKING NEWS: Air France had bomb threat before disaster
Kiran Randhawa and Peter Allen03.06.09
A bomb threat was received by Air France four days before one of its aircraft vanished over the Atlantic, it is revealed today.
The threat was made by telephone on 27 May and forced airport officials in Buenos Aires to delay one of the French carrier's flights before it was finally cleared for take-off.
Four days later, Air France Flight 447 carrying 228 passengers and crew disappeared from radar screens after leaving Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night. The development raises the possibility that the jet could have been attacked by terrorists as nobody has yet explained why pilots failed to make a mayday call, which would have taken only a couple of seconds.
Local security officials carried out a 90-minute search of the Buenos Aires plane but passengers were not evacuated.
An Air France source said: “Investigations are in process to see if the Argentina bomb threat was linked to what happened with the Brazil flight. Terrorism cannot be ruled out.”
Meanwhile, a 23ft-long piece of the plane, 10 other metal objects and an oil slick stretching 12 miles were discovered by search teams today, 55 miles south of where the first remains of the wreckage — including seats and an orange lifebuoy — were discovered 410 miles north of the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha.
Investigators are trying to recover two black box flight recorders from the plane, which hold clues to the disaster. They only emit location signals for 30 days and are likely to be at the bottom of the ocean.
Reader views (2)
Yes, that was what I thought, surely some group would have owned up by now, although after reading the article above and learning that there had been threats then maybe because nobody know's what has happened then nobody will own up just yet?
Another terrible tragedy, my thoughts are with the relatives of those who were on board.
- Nicki Read, Liverpool England
surley if it was an act of Terrorism then some group would have claimed responsibility by now
- John Haz, haverhill england
