A bomb alert that turned out to be a hoax disrupted a Turkish domestic flight Friday, forcing authorities to evacuate passengers, Anatolia news agency quoted officials as saying, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
"Bomb experts completed the search and found no trace of a bomb," said Mustafa Elaman, deputy police chief in the eastern city of Malatya, where the plane landed.
The Turkish Airlines plane had taken off from Ağrı, farther to the east, en route to Istanbul, when authorities received an anonymous call that a bomb had been planted aboard, Anatolia reported.
Police evacuated the passengers and searched the cabin and the cargo hold with the help of detectors and sniffer dogs.
Hoax bomb alerts have grounded several domestic flights in Turkey in recent years.