AIRLINE: Thank God it was nothing more than a hoax. But the way this press release reads, this flight seemed to turn back six hours after it took off. I don't understand the logic? Why not divert to a US airport this close to the US? Did they get this right? Mike Burris Cambridge, Mass >KEF: KEFLAVIK, ICELAND > >LONDON (Jan. 19) - A passenger jet flying from Britain to Florida with 340 >people on board was diverted to Iceland on Saturday after the crew found a >bomb threat and anti-American messages scrawled on a bathroom mirror in soap. > >A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic Airways indicated the incident was a hoax. >''It is a shame that people are being disrupted by someone being a bit >silly,'' spokesman Ben Hall said. > >The Boeing 747 landed safely at Keflavik airport, 30 miles southwest of the >capital Reykjavik, about six hours after it took off from London's Gatwick >airport bound for Orlando, Fla, officials said. It had 322 passengers and 18 >crew on board. > >Keflavik Police Commissioner Johann Benediktsson said the threat was written >in soap on a mirror in a plane toilet. > >''It contained the phrase 'all Americans must die' and other anti- American >sentiment,'' he said. > >It was not immediately known who wrote the threat. Airline spokesman Ben Hall >said none of the passengers would be allowed to leave the airport until they >had been questioned by police. > >Dozens of fire engines and support vehicles from the nearby U.S. naval base >at Keflavik were sent to the airport and ambulances in Reykjavik were placed >on standby, said Fridthor Eydal, spokesman for the base. > >The passengers were led into an auxiliary fire station near the terminal >building, Eydal said. > >''The hand luggage is going to be searched and all passengers will be >searched,'' he said. > >Virgin spokesman Hall said the pilot regarded the situation as a low-level >security threat, but decided to divert the plane as a precaution. He said the >passengers would be put up overnight in a hotel and would be on their way in >the morning. > >Leo/ORD