Thousands of British tourists will fly back from Sharm el-Sheikh without their luggage on Friday, after David Cameron gave the go-ahead for air travel to resume with very tight security restrictions. About 25 flights will take off from the Egyptian beach resort, clearing a backlog of up to 4,000 stranded holidaymakers who had been due to return since the Foreign Office advised against all travel through the airport on Wednesday night.
The BBC reported on Friday that a bomb may have been smuggled into the plane’s luggage hold.
Based on intercepted messages between militants in the Sinai area, UK security service investigators suspect someone with access to the aircraft’s baggage compartment inserted an explosive device inside or on top of the luggage just before the plane took off, the BBC said.
Flights were allowed to proceed after Downing Street said there had been an agreement with the Egyptian authorities on a “package of additional security measures”, including empty holds, extra screening on passengers, and checks on their hand luggage. Several airlines confirmed that they would begin “rescue flights”, including Thomson, Monarch, Easyjet and BA, which told passengers that the luggage would be sent back by a government agency and returned by courier within the next seven days.
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