Police have arrested a man they believe made a hoax bomb threat last Tuesday which forced a Shenzhen Airlines flight out of the sky.

Flight ZH 9706 took off from Xiangyang Airport in Hubei heading for Shenzhen Bao’an Airport, but made an emergency landing in Wuhan after receiving a “threatening message”.

Needless to say, after a thorough search, no explosives were found and police immediately began investigating the case.

That investigation didn’t take long, as a 29-year-old suspect, Xiong Yi, confessed to making a rogue phone call and was apprehended in a Dongguan hotel.  He was subsequently hauled up to Wuhan yesterday.

China Daily has this:

Huang Tingsong, a spokesman for Hubei’s public security department, said Xiong is from Shiyan in the province and does business in Guangdong. He has confessed that he fabricated the bomb story and made the threatening call, according to the Xinhua report.

On Sunday morning, Xiong told reporters waiting at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport that he made the hoax call, adding that he regretted doing it.

Xie Yong, director of public security at the Wuhan airport, was quoted by China National Radio as saying that wrongdoers in such cases face criminal and civic liability.

The bomb hoax became a pressing issue after an Air China flight bound for New York made a u-turn back for Beijing after receiving a ‘threatening message’ only a day before.

Earlier in July, a more serious incident occurred after a hijacking was thwarted in Xinjiang in which six ethnic Uyghur men tried to seize control but were overcome by passengers and crew.