FIVE passengers on an Egyptian aircraft diverted to a Scottish airport over an apparent threat to destroy the plane are seeking asylum in the UK.
The chief executive of EgyptAir, Tawfeek Asi, speaking from Cairo, identified the five as Syrians.
It is believed they have been transferred to London. Reports from the Middle East suggest they are suspected of planning the diversion.
The aircraft travelling between Cairo and New York was diverted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport, South Ayrshire, at around 2.30pm on Saturday after a scrawled note saying: "I'll set this plane on fire," was found in a toilet.
Prestwick is designated to deal with emergency incidents and remained open while the plane sat on a runway. The aircraft was escorted to the airport by Typhoons from RAF Leuchars.
Police Scotland confirmed the UK Border Force is dealing with the five.
The Boeing 777 was grounded for 13 hours. It was searched by police, but no suspicious items were found. All passengers were interviewed after they disembarked.
The remaining 326 passengers continued on their journey to JFK Airport at 3am yesterday after EgyptAir received permission from the Egyptian Aviation Authority to extend the crew's operating hours.
Dallia Abdel Moniem, a correspondent for Africa Review who was on the flight and headed for Boston via New York, said: "Whoever put that note in the bathroom on the Egyptair flight – thanks a million. Hoax or not you're a worthless piece."
She said passengers were left on the plane for four hours before being taken off to be interviewed.
Glasgow Prestwick chief executive Iain Cochrane said: "It was a complex and constantly evolving matter and I want to thank my staff for their unswerving professionalism and commitment during the 13 hours the aircraft was here, and praise the excellent manner in which all agencies involved worked together to resolve the matter. We have also learned some useful lessons."
The Home Office refused to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article