Mid-air Bomb Scare? (False Alarm)

Bryan at Hot Air is tracking updates on a British jetliner reported by Fox News to have landed in Italy following possible reports of a bomb on board.

Update:  From Breitbart:

A British passenger plane to Egypt diverted to a southern Italian airport Friday after the pilot reported that a bomb was suspected to be on board, Italian aviation officials said. All passengers disembarked and were safe, state police at the airport said.

The Excel Airways Boeing 767 requested an emergency landing in Brindisi Friday because of what was described as a suspected bomb, the Italian air traffic agency ENAV said.

The plane was flying from London's Gatwick airport to Hurghada, Egypt, ENAV said.

Italy's Air Force said it had sent an F-16 to intercept the plane before it landed.

Excel Airways is the "World's leading charter airline".  I just tried to charter myself a seat from Gatwick to Hurghada on Excel and found that the troubled flight in question is either XLA 5048 or XLA 5246.

(Good deal - £28 one way, with only a week's notice.)

Update:  A note

According to Italian authorities, a note, written in English, claiming a bomb was on board, was recovered.  It wasn't specified whether this note was the original source of the scare or something discovered in the subsequent investigation.

Update:  More details from BBC:

The head of police in Brindisi, Salvatore De Paulis, said the discovery of the note prompted the pilot to make an emergency landing.
...
Matthew Masters, a passenger on the plane, said the pilot had announced about two hours into the flight that there could be a bomb on board.
...
Mr Masters said there were fire engines around the plane and everyone had been searched.

Update:  False alarm.

A bomb threat scrawled on a sick bag caused a British passenger plane from London to Egypt to be diverted to southern Italy on Friday, but police said it appeared to be a false alarm.
...
"It is all over," said a spokeswoman for Excel. "The checks have gone on and once it is all cleared the passengers are going back onto the aircraft and it will resume its journey -- sooner rather than later, we hope."

But was the bout of air sickness that presumably inspired the passenger to withdraw the bag from the seatback also a false alarm?  Let's hope, for investigators' sake.