ANN REALTIME UPDATE 08.18.06 1500 EDT: Things are returning to normal at the airport in Brindisi, Italy, where a British charter flight bound for Egypt was diverted Friday after a note written on a sick bag claimed a bomb was onboard the Boeing 767.

"The alarm has been called off," said Brindisi border police chief Salvatore de Paolis.

A spokesperson for Excel Airways said the landing was a precautionary measure.

"It is all over," said the spokeswoman. "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." 

Original Report

Aero-News has learned a chartered British 767 enroute to Egypt was diverted to a southern Italian airport Friday, after the pilot reported a bomb may have been onboard.

Italian officials told the Associated Press the plane landed in Brindisi after receiving an escort by an Italian Air Force F-16, following the discovery of a handwritten note saying there was a bomb on the plane.

Salvatore De Paolis, a spokesman for border police at the airport, told SKY TG 24 television news the note was written in English.

The plane was flying from London's Gatwick airport  -- one of three British airports under heightened security after te foiling of a suspected terror plot earlier this month -- to Hurghada, Egypt, according to Italy's ENAV air traffic agency.

All 280 passengers and crew were safely taken off the aircraft, and authorities are now searching the plane.

FMI: www.xl.com