British plane ‘dodges missile’ over Sharm El-Sheikh

A plane carrying hundreds of Brits had a near-miss as it took off at Sharm El-Sheikh airport

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by Fiona Day |
Published on

A Thomson flight to Sharm El-Sheikh from London Stansted reportedly ‘dodged’ a missile as approached the Egyptian airport.

The incident, which took place in August, saw the plane come with ‘1,000ft’ of the missile causing the pilot to intervene and steer the plane to safety.

The plane landed safely in the UK with all 189 passengers unharmed, but the holiday makers were not made aware of the close call.

According to reports, pilots were told that the missile was from an Egyptian military exercise rather than from terrorist groups.

A government spokesperson said: " We investigated the reported incident at the time and concluded that it was not a targeted attack and was likely to be connected to routine exercises being conducted by the Egyptian military in the area at the time."

Passengers are still waiting to be brought safely back to the UK (stock image)

Thomson Airways said in a statement: "Upon landing into Sharm el-Sheikh, an initial assessment was conducted and the event was immediately reported to the UK Department for Transport (DfT) in line with established protocol."

"The DfT conducted a full investigation in conjunction with other UK Government experts. After reviewing the details of the case, the investigation concluded that there was no cause for concern and it was safe to continue our flying programme to Sharm el Sheikh."

But this does little to settle the fears of families left stranded in Egypt after David Cameron grounded all UK bound flights.

The decision came after it emerged that a Russian jet which crashed last week may have been brought down by a bomb.

Security experts have been sent out to Egypt to investigate and assist families left stranded in the popular holiday destination.

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