Rabat – French security officials prohibited a Royal Air Maroc (RAM) plane from taking off at the Montpellier airportin Southern France, following an alert indicating the presence of an explosive device on board Monday, May 29.
French authorities received an alert from an unknown source indicating the presence of a bomb on an airplane flying from Montpellier to a North African country.
Investigations carried out by the French services indicated that the only plane that met the descriptions given by the anonymous source was Royal Air Maroc’s “AT 795” which was scheduled to take off at 12:25 pm for Casablanca, informed local news website le360.
The plane was then prevented from taking off from the airport by French security officials, according to the website.
The 58 passengers on board were evacuated from the plane and the French gendarmerie, accompanied by trained dogs, examined the plane, explained the same source. It added that no evidence of the presence of any explosive device was found.
Having ensured that the plane was free of explosives, French authorities allowed the flight to proceed between the Montpelier airport and Casablanca, where it landed at 5:20 pm, three hours late.
An investigation was opened by the French authority services to identify the source of the false alert.
