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A Pakistani man was removed from an easyJet aircraft which was due to fly from Rome to Luton over security fears.
The 33-year-old passenger was ordered off by Italian border agents at the city’s Fiumicino airport after he was found to be travelling on a suspect passport.
Bags on the flight were subsequently re-checked on Sunday lunchtime before the aircraft eventually took off later the same afternoon.
The airline said five passengers unconnected with the suspect chose not to fly in the immediate aftermath of the incident and were switched to later flights.
A spokesman told AFP the man was being investigated after the UK border agency alerted the Italians to discrepancies between the passport details he had entered in his online booking and information that they held in their database.
He added: “We don’t know it was definitely a fake passport. That is under police investigation.”
Italy’s interior minister Angelino Alfano told Canale5 television that it was “too early” to speculate whether the man was in breach of immigration rules.
He said: “Checks are underway, there is no need to start speculating in a way that could cause alarm.
“It is too early to say if it was a case of a violation of immigration and citizenship rules or anything more than that. We will know more in the coming hours.”