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A 14-year-old boy is “assisting officers with their inquiries” after a hoax threat was made to an aircraft heading to Manchester Airport.
RAF Typhoons were scrambled from Lincolnshire on Friday to intercept the Qatar Airways flight in response, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
Nats – formerly National Air Traffic Services – received the threat at around 6pm on Friday, and police responded alongside the RAF and airport authorities.
The aircraft landed safely and there was no threat to passengers or crew, Greater Manchester Police confirmed.
A 14-year-old boy from Bolton, who was not on the flight, has been identified and is “assisting officers with their inquiries”, police said.
The hoax call concerned a Qatar Airways flight landing into Manchester on Friday (file photo) (Simon Calder)
Chief Inspector Gary Homa said: “This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable. The safety of the public is always our top priority and every report of this nature is treated extremely seriously.
“Hoax calls can cause significant disruption, divert vital emergency service resources and create unnecessary concern for passengers, crew and the wider public.
“Thankfully, this incident concluded safely, but making false reports is not a prank and can have serious consequences. We will always investigate incidents of this kind thoroughly and take robust action where offences have been committed.”
On Friday, the BBC reported the MoD had scrambled the RAF Typhoons to intercept the aircraft.
The jets took off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire following the alert about the plan that was travelling from Manchester Airport from Doha.
An RAF spokesperson said at the time that the flight was “causing concern to civil authorities”.
“The incident was resolved and the airliner landed safely,” they added.
The flight landed at 19:45 BST, according to the Manchester Airport arrivals board.