On December 20, a bomb threat on a Thai Airways plane at Suvarnabhumi International Airport caused a five hour delay, but after an intense search officials found no explosive on the aircraft, according to a local media report.

Sunathee Isvarphornchai, Thai Airways International's Vice President for Corporate Communication Relations, said she was told that a bomb had been planted on flight TG 521 bound for Dubai via the south Indian city of Chennai and was about to leave Bangkok at10:55 a.m. local time on December 20.

A female passenger -- later identified as Padmapriya Natarajan,29, from India -- told airline staff just before boarding that she had received a bomb threat on her mobile phone. A female voice had allegedly asked if she knew Bin Laden and told her that a bomb had been planted on the TG 521 plane, according to Sunathee.

Thai Airways officials along with police and bomb squad officers spent nearly three hours searching the aircraft, passenger luggage and cargo, but found nothing unusual, she was quoted by Thai news group The Nation as saying.

However, the airline decided to fly the 270 passengers and 18 crew members to the scheduled destination on another aircraft, which departed at 3:30 p.m. local time, while Natarajan was held for further questioning.

Immigration Police deputy superintendent Phakkapong Saiubol said Natarajan had both Indian and Canadian nationalities and presented her Canadian passport to immigration police at the airport.

Police suspected Natarajan had either made up the bomb threat or had received the phone call from friends who wanted to tease her, as the call was made to her personal phone number.

The report said if the investigation discovers she has lied, the police could place her on a national security related charge, Lt Col Phakkapong said, adding that but if no wrongdoing was found, she would be allowed to continue her journey to Dubai on the next flight.