Man threatens airliner to stop woman leaving him

A SHENZHEN Airlines flight made an emergency landing in an east China city yesterday after a man made a fake bomb call in an attempt to stop his girlfriend from leaving him.

The airport of Hefei, capital of eastern China's Anhui Province, received the warning by telephone shortly after midnight yesterday, soon after flight ZH9786 bound for Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, departed the airport.

The plane landed at the airport of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province. A thorough examination of the aircraft and 160 passengers did not find any explosives.

The caller, identified by the surname Chen, 32, gave himself up to Anhui police at 2:50am and admitted he didn't want his girlfriend to go after they quarreled on Wednesday and the woman got on the flight, the airport police said.

Chen was detained for making and spreading false terror information, the police said.

The airline sent another plane that picked up the passengers and landed in Shenzhen at 1:30pm.

Hoax calls have become more frequent this year with more than 10 affecting domestic carriers.

A Shandong Airlines flight SC1170 from Guangzhou to Jinan was diverted in the Hefei Airport after receiving a threatening call on February 8 that proved to be false.

In October, two Air China flights received threatening calls before take-off on the same day. Both turned out to be hoaxes after thorough checks revealed nothing suspicious, the airline said.

Some hoax callers have gotten a year in prison. Under Chinese law, when such hoax threats to airliners result in injuries, callers face minimum sentences of five years.

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