World

Bomb Scare For Pakistani Potentate

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 14, 2000 / 8:44 AM EDT / CBS

A plane carrying Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had to return to New York shortly after takeoff on Wednesday night following a bomb scare, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 722, scheduled to take the general and 120 other passengers and crew members to Karachi, Pakistan, was forced to change course over Boston and return to John F. Kennedy International Airport, Port Authority spokesman Alan Hicks said.

The plane, which also had a scheduled stop in Manchester, England, landed safely and no one was hurt in the incident, officials said.

"We have no reason to believe that there was a bomb on this plane," Hicks said.

The spokesman said later that Musharraf's plane took off again from New York on Thursday morning.

Musharraf had been in New York to attend the U.N. Millennium Summit.

Before its scheduled takeoff from New York at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, the plane was searched by canine units of the New York Police Department, Port Authority police and the U.S. Secret Service as part of normal security procedures. That search turned up no bombs.

But after those searches, New York police received an emergency call saying there were three bombs on the plane.

"The pilot decided to take off anyway, since the plane had already been searched three times," Hicks said. The plane got as far as Boston before the pilot reconsidered and returned to JFK. The spokesman did not know what led to the decision to turn the plane around.

The plane was taken to a remote part of the airport, where the passengers and their luggage were taken off.

"The Pakistani official was taken to a safe location — the VIP lounge in the airport," Hicks said.

The luggage and the plane were then searched again.

The general took power last Oct. 12 when he overthrew the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a military coup after being fired as army chief hours before. Musharraf has vowed to cleanse the country's political system of corruption before holding elections.

Sharif was later tried for attempting to stop a plane carrying Musharraf from landing on the night of the coup, and sentenced to two life terms in prison for hijacking and terrorism by an anti-terrorism Court.

He has appealed the sentence in a higher court.