Bomb found 30m from airliner

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 10

Bomb found 30m from airliner

NZPA-Reuter London

A bomb discovered at London’s Heathrow Airport yesterday just before it was to be taken aboard a crowded El Al Boeing 747 was set to go off when the plane was airborne, the police said. The police arrested a

woman and said they were seeking an Arab man who fled the scene. The head of Britain’s police anti-terrorist squad, Commander George Churchill Coleman, said: “It would have exploded once the aeroplane was airborne, killing the 400 passengers and crew.”

A young woman, identified as Irish, was arrested about 30 metres from the plane after an El Al security guard became suspicious about a bag she was carrying and ordered that it be searched. The bag contained a bomb, which the police said weighed under skg. It

was later defused. Commander Coleman said the police were seeking the woman’s male companion. They named him as Nezar Hindawi, aged about 35.

He said the woman had known Mr Hindawi for about a year and might have been duped by him

into taking the bomb on to the plane. The police said she was a hotel employee travelling to Israel on holiday. “At this stage we’re talking to the lady and have no intention of charging her at the moment,” Commander Coleman said.