H.K. man detained over bomb prank on airplane

HONG KONG, Aug. 23 Kyodo

A Hong Kong man has been detained in the southern Chinese city Guangzhou for allegedly playing a bomb scare prank on board a passenger plane heading for Australia, reports said Wednesday.

A China Southern Airlines plan left the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport for Sydney on Monday, but it turned back about 40 minutes later after Wong Chun-wah, an Australian passport holder, said he found a note in the lavatory that warned a bomb would explode, the South China Morning Post reported.

After returning to the airport, more than 200 passengers and cabin crew were evacuated. All but nine passengers resumed their journey after a five-hour police search found no bomb on the plane.

The daily quoted an Australian passenger on the plane, Jason Harper, as saying no one knew what was happening at first when all the lights went out and the pilot dumped all the fuel.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said police confirmed Wong wrote the note by verifying his handwriting and that Wong confessed to police he was lovesick and made the threat because of depression.

The airplane landed in Sydney on Tuesday.

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