Bomb scare plane given all-clear

The plane made a safe landing at 1100 BST

A Singapore Airlines flight to New York which landed in Manchester following a bomb threat is continuing its journey.

The plane made a safe landing at 1100 BST without a military escort, and was then searched by police.

The plane is the fourth to be diverted because of bomb hoaxes in the last nine days, one of them to London Stansted.

On Thursday, a BA flight from Berlin to London landed in Amsterdam after a telephone call to a German radio warned there was a bomb on board.

Two Olympic Airways flights were diverted a day earlier.

The Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 took off from Frankfurt at 0831BST, but was diverted to Manchester after German authorities received a hoax bomb threat.

All the 292 passengers and 19 crew members disembarked safely.

After being cleared, the plane took off again at 1350 BST, bound for New York.

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A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said: "The plane travelling from Frankfurt to New York that was diverted to Manchester this morning has been declared safe.

"All passengers have been screened and the airline is happy that all the necessary checks have been carried out."

Last Thursday, a British Airways flight from Berlin to London was diverted to Amsterdam and later given the all-clear by authorities before continuing its journey to Heathrow.

But the passengers arrived in London on a separate plane.

On Wednesday, an Olympic Airways flight from Athens to New York landed in Ireland after a Greek newspaper received an anonymous phone call warning there was a bomb on board, but nothing suspicious was found during the inspection.

A second Olympic Airways plane had to be diverted to Stansted airport after a similar alert.

This time, the plane with 301 people on board was escorted to Stansted, near London.