Ryanair: an Italian and a Kuwaiti arrested for terrorism

LONDON – A 48-year-old Italian and a 34-year-old Kuwaiti citizen were arrested on Sunday night by British counterterrorism forces aboard a Ryanair plane from Vienna that had just landed at London Stansted Airport. The flight ended dramatically: After crew members found “suspicious objects” in the plane’s bathroom, two RAF Typhoons-class fighter-bombers took off from a military base in England and escorted the plane to the final stage of disembarkation at Stansted. .

August 30, 1800z: Royal Air Force QRA Typhoons launched from Coningsby pic.twitter.com/6uREkbzCJM

– Thousand Radar (@MIL_Radar) August 30, 2020

The plane stopped in an isolated area of ​​the airport, where counter-terrorism agents immediately arrived, took the two suspects away, arrested them and took them away for questioning. Police sources, who reported the event to the media in London, did not provide the identity of the arrested person or the reason for the arrest, they simply reported that the two were arrested under article 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, the law against terrorism. terrorism. . The rest of the passengers disembarked later without problems. The plane belongs to Lauda, ​​the airline founded by former Formula One driver Niki Lauda, ​​which became a subsidiary of Ryanair two years ago. The planned London-Vienna flight was carried out on another jet plane.

A Ryanair spokesperson announced that during the Vienna-London trip the crew had been aware of a “potential threat to security” and for this reason the pilot sounded the alarm, launching the escort flight of the fighter and intervention forces anti-terrorists.

After landing, the two Typhoons flew over Stansted Airport several times before departing. A passenger, Joanna Czechowska, posted several messages on Twitter, first revealing that two people on board her flight had been arrested by police upon arrival in London. Investigations are underway to establish the magnitude of the threat.