PANAMA CITY—A Copa Airlines aircraft bound for Tampa, Florida, from Panama City turned back following a suspected bomb threat and the 144 passengers on board were disembarked, but the scare turned out to be a false alarm, authorities said on Friday.
Officials carried out an emergency inspection of the aircraft, and identified a disposable diaper for adults as the object that prompted the scare, the Central American country’s police said on X, formerly Twitter.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft had been isolated from other planes when it landed back at Panama City’s international airport at 10:59 a.m. local time (1559 GMT) following the bomb scare, Panama’s aviation authority said in a post on X.
Passengers have begun boarding the aircraft to resume their travel to Tampa, Copa Airlines said in a statement later, adding that authorities have ruled out any type of threat.
Panama City’s international airport, where 17 commercial airlines operate, did not reply to requests for comment.
