Bomb scare at airport

Photo: Twitter

A suspicious package caused a scare at an airport in Taipei Saturday.

A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Taipei, Taiwan, completed what appeared to be an uneventful flight with a safe landing in Taipei.

While unloading the aircraft a ground worker discovered a luggage container with a hand written label in Chinese indicating "Explosives! Handle with care!" and alerted security forces resulting in a massive deployment of police and firefighting forces including the bomb squad.

The aircraft was moved away from the terminal to the remote stand 605. The bomb squad subsequently examined the container and found no trace of explosives.

The aircraft was released to service after about 100 minutes on the ground.

The passengers for the return flight CX-495 to Hong Kong boarded the aircraft at the remote stand and reached their destination with a delay of 30 minutes.

Taiwan's Police identified the flight as CX-450 with 377 passengers and 17 crew and reported that the luggage container had been loaded in Hong Kong. 

No one had access to the container until landing in Taipei, the assumption is that the label was attached in Hong Kong already.

Surveillance cameras at Hong Kong Airport are now being checked.

Hong Kong's and Taiwan's Civil Aviation Authorities are investigating the occurrence.