Novosibirsk-Moscow flight requests emergency landing in Perm due to anonymous bomb threat
PERM. March 3 (Interfax) - A Novosibirsk-Moscow flight has requested an emergency landing in Perm due to an anonymous bomb threat, an informed source told Interfax.
"An unknown person has alleged the presence of a bomb on board an Airbus A-320 plane flying from Novosibirsk to Moscow. The captain has decided to make an emergency landing in the nearest airport, Perm," the source said.
There are 113 passengers and six crewmembers on board.
A source told Interfax earlier that the S7 flight S72508 sent the distress signal while flying over Udmurtia. "The Airbus A-320 was on its way from Novosibirsk to Moscow. The captain sent the distress signal from the skies of Udmurtia. The plane urgently descended," he said. After that, the plane took a 90 degree turn and headed towards Perm for an emergency landing while continuing its descent, the source said.
On the ground security services carried out necessary checks, the plane and luggage were inspected; the results will be announced later, the airport's press service told Interfax.
The airliner flew out to Moscow at 5:25 p.m. local time, according to the departures board at Perm (Bolshoye Savino) International Airport.Meanwhile, a plane flying from Vladivostok to Moscow made an unscheduled landing in Khabarovsk following an autonomous security threat this morning.
"SU1703 flight (en route from Vladivostok to Moscow) landed in Khabarovsk Airport for an examination after it received an anonymous security threat," an Aeroflot representative told Interfax.
The plane will continue its flight to Moscow after the check, he said.
A source told Interfax that the flight was interrupted by an anonymous bomb report. "An unknown person called emergency services and said there was a bomb on the plane. The information was conveyed to the captain, and he decided to stop the flight and to perform an emergency landing in Khabarovsk," the source said, adding there were 167 passengers and 11 crewmembers on board.