ISTANBUL: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane made an unscheduled landing in Istanbul today after a bomb threat, Turkish media and the airline reported.
Television footage from Turkey’s private Dogan news agency showed a PIA airliner on the tarmac Istanbul’s Ataturk airport in the west of the city.
A spokesman for the airline said the flight from Lahore to Manchester in Britain was diverted to Istanbul after PIA received an e-mail saying there was a bomb aboard flight 709.
Passengers were allowed to disembark and were seen being bussed to the terminal building, while fire engines and ambulances stood close to the plane.
Turkish police could not be immediately reached for comment. - Reuters