A Pakistani International Airlines (PIA) plane was evacuated and searched at King Abdul Aziz International Airport here Sunday night after a bomb alert that turned out to be false. A PIA official said that the bomb threat came just before the plane landed in Jeddah after a direct flight from Pakistan. The plane, with 250 passengers on board, landed safely, and Saudi authorities immediately evacuated the passengers and crew and launched a search on board. “All actions have been taken to ensure the safety of our passengers,” Colonel Talat Omar, PIA's director for the Middle East and Africa, told Saudi Gazette. “We were sure that it was false, as we have strict security measures and systems,” Omar said. He added that the caller was speaking from outside Saudi Arabia. “It can easily happen,” Omar added. “Someone can just call and say there is a bomb on a certain flight.” “I trust my company's security systems, and we have ensured that it was really a false report and we have followed the matter seriously until the passengers went home,” Omar said. Officials at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport told Saudi Gazette that the plane was moved away from other aircraft for searching, but the airport remained open. “Other international fights at the airport landed on time,” said an official at the airport's operation room who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source said that the plane flew back to Pakistan later. “After the police were satisfied there was no threat to safety, the plane took off to Pakistan again,” the official said. __
