Bomb scare makes Lisbon-bound flight return to Turkey

Turkish AirlinesA Turkish Airlines flight to Lisbon has been diverted back to Istanbul due to a bomb threat.

Reuters news agency reports the plane was diverted after unaccompanied baggage was found on board.

A spokesperson for the airline told the agency that the TK1759 flight – which was supposed to arrive in Lisbon at 2.45pm – was carrying 170 passengers and seven crew members.

Speaking to Lusa news agency, a source from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the situation had been resolved and the flight was going to be made in another plane.

This is the third bomb threat that Turkish Airlines has faced in the last week.

On Monday (March 31), a São Paulo-bound flight landed in Morocco after a note with the word "bomb" was found in the lavatory.

A day before, a flight from Istanbul to Tokyo had to turn back just after take-off when another note was found on a lavatory door.

This news story was reproduced with kind permission of the Algarve Resident. For more news, see: www.portugalresident.com.