By ANJO PEREZ

Manila, Philippines – Airport bomb disposal experts had their hands full early yesterday morning when they received a call informing them that an explosive device was reportedly planted on a US-bound flight via Japan.

Shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, members of the Philippine National Police- Aviation Security Group (PNP-ASG) Special Operations Unit (SOU) scrambled to the tarmac of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport where the Delta Airlines aircraft was docked after receiving information that a bomb was set to explode inside the aircraft at 5 a.m.

According to airport authorities, an airport employee stationed at the baggage conveyor area received a phone call from a man who informed him that someone had planted a bomb inside Delta Airlines flight DL172. The flight was bound for the New York City via Narita, Japan and was scheduled to depart at 8:04 a.m.

The personnel who received the call immediately informed the Airport Police Department about the bomb threat. Airport police in turn called the PNP-ASG.

Ten minutes after the initial call, another call was made by the same caller and introduced himself as a
concerned citizen, saying, “kaibigan ko ang gumawa ng bomba.”

The airport authority dispatched reinforcement to the tarmac and posted additional bomb-sniffing K9 units to the entry gates as well as the baggage build-up area, where bags are held prior to being loaded into the aircraft cargo hold.

The SOU scoured the entire cabin of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft including its cargo hold for any trace of explosives. Bomb-sniffing dogs also searched through the entire cargo and baggage but found no explosives.

Airport authorities also searched the other Delta Airlines aircraft, flight DL630 which was bound for Detroit, Michigan via Nagoya, Japan just to make sure that there were no explosives onboard the aircraft.

After the search proved negative for explosives, airport authorities cleared the two flights for takeoff. Flight DL630 which was scheduled to leave at 6:45 a.m. was delayed by half an hour while DL172 was able to depart on time.