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Sri Lankan Airlines flight recalled back to Singapore due to security reasons

Xinhua, April 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Sri Lankan Airlines flight which took off from Singapore's Changi International Airport on Thursday was ordered to return back to Singapore shortly due to security reasons, the airline said in a statement here on Friday.

Sri Lankan Airlines UL309 flight was flying from Singapore to Colombo and later arrived in Colombo in the early hours of Friday, with a total delay of three hours.

The Airlines said upon its return to Changi Airport, the airport division of the Singapore police force requested that all luggage was screened once more and also interviewed a few passengers.

The airport police also requested Sri Lankan Airlines to offload three additional passengers for further questioning.

"This was in addition to five passengers who were initially detained for interrogation before the flight departed," the statement said.

"In order to avoid further delays, Sri Lankan decided to offload the family members of the two passengers offloaded for interviewing and baggage identification by the airport police," the statement added.

The five passengers, originally offloaded are still being detained by Singapore's Airport Police division.

Sri Lankan Airlines said it is in the process of requesting for a comprehensive report, "as ideally all necessary inspections should be completed by airport authorities prior to releasing an aircraft for departure."

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore is yet to disclose the reasons that led to the recall of the flight, the statement said. Enditem