Most of the passengers traveling back to their country France from Mauritius expressed fear over the Sunday incident but they were assured of their security with Nkaissery applauding the pilot for quick and safe landing action.
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It was diverted to the coastal city of Mombasa after the device was found, said Joseph Nkaissery, Kenya’s interior minister.
Air France CEO Frederic Gagey described the object at a press conference Sunday as a cardboard box containing papers, with “something like a kitchen timer” inside it.
It was found by a passenger in a cabinet behind the restroom mirror, he said.
Gagey said there had been three bomb scares on Air France planes in the U.S. in the past 15 days.
In 2005 a JetBlue flight that circled Los Angeles with a malfunctioning landing gear was captured by television cameras, and passengers picked up the live broadcasts on the plane’s cabin monitors.
He said the object contained no explosives.
After initially believing the device to be a “bomb”, Air France confirmed it was a fake and someone had played a risky hoax.
France has been in a state of emergency since Islamic extremist attacks November 13.
Gagey said crew members had also indicated that in their routine check of the plane before the flight, the cupboard had been empty.
But Price agreed with the Air France crew.
“It requested an emergency landing after a device suspected to be a bomb was discovered in the lavatory, an emergency was prepared and it landed safely and all passengers evacuated”, police spokesman Charles Owino said.
Last week, a flight from Madrid to Sao Paulo, Brazil, operated by the Brazilian airline TAM, returned to the Spanish capital after Spanish authorities informed the airline of a possible bomb threat. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for those attacks and for downing a plane carrying Russian tourists out of Egypt in October.
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Several passengers were questioned in Mombasa before a plane was sent to return all those on board to France. Cabin crew told him it was a technical problem and they created a calm environment among the passengers.
