Flights Halted After Bomb Threat Found on Plane

A bomb threat scribbled on a sick bag left in an aeroplane toilet sparked a huge security alert yesterday that grounded many flights leaving Australia.

The captain flew the plane back to Sydney when the message was discovered, travelling 600 miles as emergency crews prepared to evacuate passengers and seal the airport.

The United Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles was disrupted when a passenger handed the sick bag to staff. The pilot dumped fuel and airspace was cleared before the 747 landed. The plane was isolated in a little-used section of the city's airport while the 264 passengers and crew were bussed to the terminal.

Police cordoned off roads around the airport, and flights across eastern Australia were grounded.

The Australian deputy prime minister, John Anderson, told ABC television last night that the alert appeared to have been caused by a hoax.

"It is my hope that it is a hoax, but we don't run those risks," he said. "Safety comes first. It does say something, though, about the sick minds that we occasionally have to deal with. Thank God everyone is safe."

Passengers and crew spent three hours in security checks before they were allowed to leave the airport terminal last night. No one was arrested.

The wording of the message and the circumstances in which it was left have not been released.

"The plane actually turned around and then we were told that there was an unconfirmed threat," passenger Jeff Nelson told Australian Associated Press. "We were given very little information over all, everyone was pretty calm. I guess they didn't give us any information to keep us calm."

Australia has had several air scares in recent days, along with a threat published online by an unknown Islamist organisation. The Tawhid Islamic Group promised a wave of car bombings against Australia unless it withdrew its 800 troops from Iraq. "We call upon you to leave Iraq before your country turns to pools of blood," it said in a statement.

In Sydney the discovery of a box cutter knife on an Emirates flight prompted a security alert. It had been left on a seat by ground crew who had used it to cut open a bundle of newspapers.

At Perth airport a confused man found his way on to a flight bound for Singapore without clearing immigration or security checks.