A British army bomb squad was preparing this evening to board a Pakistani airliner at the centre of a bomb scare at Manchester airport.
Nearly 500 people were evacuated from the jet earlier in the day after an unnamed Pakistani Islamic group phoned the airline to say the plane would explode over the midAtlantic.
Police feared the PIA jet, en route to New York from Lahore, would explode about 18:00 GMT.
"We've now passed the time the plane was due to arrive at JFK so it is now safer than before but we're still treating it as a serious threat until proved otherwise," the spokeswoman said.
The Boeing 747, which contained 220 American passengers, landed at Manchester at 09:00 GMT and all 462 passengers and 17 crew were taken off safely.
The aircraft had been scheduled to stop at Manchester for refuelling before continuing to New York.
Passengers have been taken to nearby hotels and are expected to be able to resume their journey on Saturday night.
