Bomb threat delays flight ahead of APEC meeting
Bomb threat delays flight ahead of APEC meeting
Agence France-Presse, Busan, South Korea
A domestic flight bound for the South Korean city of Busan was
delayed for two hours at Seoul's Incheon international airport on
Friday following a bomb threat, witnesses said.
Passengers, including Indonesian government staff attending
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum here, were
ordered to disembark as authorities combed the Korean Air plane.
Elite troops, armed with assault rifles and wearing helmets,
secured the departure area for domestic flights, as bomb disposal
experts searched the plane's cargo bay.
Passengers were directed to take their hand luggage and pass
through metal detectors a second time, and their names were
double-checked against the passenger list, an AFP reporter aboard
the aircraft said.
A flight attendant announced inside the cabin that the
evacuation had been ordered due to reports there may have been an
"explosive device" inside the aircraft.
The plane was cleared to depart two hours later after the
pilot announced that no explosives had been found.
Security officials mounted the search after a passenger, an
elderly American man, reported he had seen two men exchange what
appeared to be "clips" used for rifle ammunition in the
passengers' lounge.
The American later failed to identify the men among the
passengers. He was apologetic to his fellow travelers for the
delay but said he had no choice but to report what he had seen.
Security officials have set up a tight cordon ahead of this
year's APEC meeting, which will culminate in a Nov. 18-19 summit
of 21 Asia Pacific leaders.
Among those scheduled to attend are U.S. President George W.
Bush, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Russian
President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Hu Jintao and
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
At the APEC summit in Busan, Bush will seek to advance
international cooperation on controlling avian flu and North
Korea's nuclear weapons program.
The bird flu has killed 62 people in four countries,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, and has become
entrenched in poultry flocks across much of Asia and into Europe.