Aussie charged with plane bomb hoax

Paola Totaro

March 24, 2009 - 10:40AM

An Australian man has been charged after a bomb hoax sparked an emergency evacuation of an Emirates flight at London's Gatwick Airport on Sunday.

Matthew Carney, 23, from Melbourne, was arrested after a note was discovered on board the flight from Dubai to London.

The note, found 10 minutes before the flight landed, allegedly suggested an explosive device was hidden on the plane.

The plane was carrying 184 passengers.

Explosive experts searched the luggage on board the plane while passengers were evacuated and interviewed by police.

Carney was charged with communicating information which was believed to be false and with the intention of inducing a false belief that an object liable to explode or ignite was present in the cargo of a plane, police said.

Carney entered no plea in court and was remanded in custody to appear again on Thursday.
This is the second incident involving Emirates in recent days.

The tail of an Airbus A40-500 touched the runway as it was taking off from Melbourne Airport about 10.30pm on Friday.

The plane, which carried more than 200 passengers, circled Port Phillip for about half an hour while fuel was dumped. The plane then made an emergency landing. No passengers were injured and the airline is investigating the incident.

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