British Military Jet Escorts Airliner after Bomb Threat

London: Britain's Royal Air Force scrambled a military jet to escort a Qatar Airways flight into the northern English city of Manchester on Tuesday after the pilot notified the airport that a "possible device" was on board, police said.

After the Typhoon warplane escorted the Airbus A330 as it landed, armed police officers boarded the plane and arrested an unidentified man on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat, a police statement said.

Passengers on board the plane told British broadcasters that they could see the Typhoon flying close to their plane as it approached Manchester, the busiest airport in the north of England.

Airport operations were briefly suspended but then resumed.

The spectacle played out to a live television audience, with passengers calling to broadcasters to give a running account of their ordeal - and to complain that they were not being told by the airplane's crew about what was happening.