Turkish plane makes emergency landing in North Greece over bomb threat

A passenger plane travelling from Germany to Turkey made a safe emergency landing in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Friday after the pilot received a bomb threat on his mobile phone, Greek officials said.

The plane, a Turkish SunExpress aircraft with 69 passengers on board, landed at 1558 GMT and Greek security officials were searching the aircraft before allowing it to resume its journey to Izmir from Stuttgart, Germany.

"Someone called the pilot on his mobile phone and threatened him," Greek air traffic controller Panagiotis Hatzakis told Reuters.

"The incident was most likely a hoax," he said. "But the pilot was right to land for precautionary reasons."

/World Bulletin/