Bomb threat at Eindhoven Airport prompts woman’s arrest on flight departing for Antalya

A woman was arrested on Friday afternoon at Eindhoven Airport for making false claims that she had a bomb in her luggage while on a plane, a spokesperson for the Koninklijke Marechaussee confirmed. The incident led to the closure of the country’s second-largest airport, which lasted for about 30 minutes starting on Friday morning.

The woman suspected of making the threat is a 51-year-old who was sitting on a flight that was set to depart to Antalya, according to Omroep Brabant. The only scheduled departure to the Turkish resort city was operated by TUI Airlines, which took off at 11:55 a.m. instead of 10:25 a.m.

The woman’s suitcase was in the cargo hold of the Boeing 737, which was checked by an explosives expert. “We take every report seriously. In this case, it turned out not to be a bomb,” a spokesperson for the Marechaussee told Omroep Brabant.

Few details about the threat were disclosed by investigators, but the woman was being questioned on Friday afternoon. It was not yet clear who accused the woman of making statements about a bomb, nor the alleged motivation, Eindhovens Dagblad reported.

One RyanAir flight from Oporto was diverted to the airport in Weeze, Germany, as a result of the disruption caused by the threat and the ensuing investigation. In the two hours that followed, at least ten departing flights were running behind schedule, with delays ranging from a few minutes to several hours.

Several arriving flights faced relatively minor delays, according to the airport’s website. The airport’s schedule had largely returned to normal by 2 p.m., the spokesperson told Omroep Brabant.