Air France flight 'bomb' in toilet prompts emergency landing in Kenya

Plane diverted after device found in bathroom.

Air France - not an image of the actual flight (Getty)

A suspected bomb found in the toilets of an Air France flight forced the plane to perform an emergency landing. .

The plane, which had 459 passengers on board, was travelling from Mauritius to Paris, but diverted to Mombasa, Kenya. The Boeing 777 Air France flight 463 had left Mauritius at 9pm and requested to land at Moi International Airport in Mombasa at 12.37am. Kenya's interior minister Joseph Nkaissery spoke at a news conference in Mombasa and announced that several people who were on Air France Flight 463 are being questioned by Kenyan authorities..

According to Kenyan police officials, the onboard device was suspected to be a bomb. Charles Owino, a police spokesperson, said the device was removed and all passengers safely disembarked.

"The object, believed to be an explosive device has successfully been retrieved from the aircraft," said Kenya Airports Authority in a post on Twitter, adding that scheduled flights to Mombasa were disrupted during the interval but that normal operations have resumed. Bomb experts are investigating the device.

Benoit Luchini, a passenger on board the plane, spoke to journalists after leaving the plane in Mombasa. He said, 'The plane just went down slowly, slowly, slowly, so we just realized probably something was wrong. The personnel of Air France were just great, they were just wonderful. We secured the seat belt to land in Mombasa because we thought it was a technical problem but actually it was not. It was something in the toilet. Something wrong in the toilet, it could be a bomb."

A spokesperson for Air France has confirmed that the matter is being looked into by Kenyan Authorities and it is currently an ongoing investigation. The airline has told the press association that a substitute plane has been sent to pick up stranded passengers.

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