Bomb threat delays Singapore-bound flight

CEBU, Philippines - A bomb threat delayed a flight bound for Singapore for five hours yesterday afternoon at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

All 127 passengers and a crew of six from Silk Air flight 541 were asked to disembark after MCIA general manager Danilo Francia received a bomb threat via text message.

Francia told The Freeman that he received the text message at 1:17 p.m.

The plane was scheduled to take off at 1:45 p.m.

Asking the people inside the plane to disembark, according to Francia, is a standard procedure during bomb threats.

While the passengers and crew were at the terminal, the cargo and the whole plane was checked by personnel of the Police Civil Aviation Security, Special Reaction Unit of the Mactan Airport backed by trained dogs, said Francia.

The message sent to Francia read: “Mga kapatid allahu Akbar ipagdasal natin ang kaluluwa ng kapatid nating namatay sa pagsabug ng silk air minuto ngayon patungo Singapore Allahu Akbar.Ji.”

Francia said that they could not just dismiss the threat as a hoax.

The management of Silk Air is also closely coordinating with the airport officials in addressing the needs of the passengers while they are at the airport terminal.

Security at airports have been stepped up since the 9-11 attacks in the United States where terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC.

According to records of the Mactan airport, on March 2, 2005, the pilot of a Manila-bound Cebu Pacific flight from Davao City made an emergency landing in Mactan after the airline office received a text message that a bomb was stuffed inside a lechon.

No explosive was found inside the lechon, but the incident alarmed the 78 passengers and crewmembers on board the aircraft.

A Cebu Pacific flight bound for Manila was also delayed for hours last Jan. 23, 2003, after a Cebu City resident joked that his bag contained a bomb.

Last year, a businessman was arrested for joking that he had a bomb inside his bag while the aircraft he was in was about to take off for Iloilo City.

Francia said that the Silk Air flight took off shortly before 7 p.m.–/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)