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Air France CEO: Device was a ‘false alarm’

Posted at 9:53 AM, Dec 20, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-20 10:40:33-05
Air France Flight 463 sits on the runway Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya, on Sunday. Courtesy CNN.

Air France Flight 463 sits on the runway Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya, on Sunday.
Courtesy CNN.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The CEO of Air France says a device discovered in the bathroom of an Air France flight was a fake bomb.

The Boeing 777 was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Mauritius when its pilots requested an emergency landing at early Sunday in the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

Frederic Gagey, the head of the airline, said the device was made of cardboard, paper and a household timer. In a news conference in Paris, Gagey congratulated the crew for their cool-headed reaction to divert the plane.

He says “this object did not contain explosives.”

Gagey says a safety check was carried out in the bathroom before the flight. He says passengers are checked, and sometimes double-checked on flights, and denied any security failure in the flight Sunday.