A 47-year-old man was arrested on board a passenger plane on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat that forced military jets to escort a Qatar Airways Airbus A330 into Manchester airport.

An RAF Typhoon escort was scrambled after the pilot on board flight QR23 from Doha to Manchester notified authorities he had been handed a note from a passenger about "a possible device on board". The plane, carrying 269 passengers and 13 crew, landed safely ahead of its 1.15pm scheduled arrival time on Tuesday.

Greater Manchester police dealt with the incident as a "full emergency activation" and the plane was moved to a designated area while armed officers boarded and arrested a male passenger.

"The incident arose when the pilot received information about a possible device on board the plane having been handed a note from a passenger," police said in a statement, adding: "A 47-year-old man from north Wales has been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb hoax and remains in police custody for questioning."

The aircraft was searched and nothing suspicious was found.

One police source said: "On a sliding scale we think we may be looking at an idiot rather than an international terrorist."

Passengers said they became worried when they saw a fighter aircraft flying alongside them as they approached Manchester but cabin crew told them nothing.

Jackie Clifton, 52, returning from Australia to visit family in the UK, was sitting across the aisle from the arrested man. "He sat very quietly throughout the whole flight and then when we started the descent he disappeared for maybe 20 minutes," she said.

When he returned, a member of the cabin crew came to talk to him, Clifton said, "and I could hear them saying to him, 'it's a criminal offence'."

Her partner, Dennis Firth, 51, said the man looked very calm until the jet started following the plane. "I looked at him and his face looked a bit like, 'oh shit'. They left him sitting there with us all until we landed and armed police came on and told him to put his hands above his head and marched him off."

Another passenger, Aurange Zab, 60, from Bradford, who had been on holiday in Qatar, said: "I thought something was wrong. Maybe there was a bomb threat or whatever. I saw a plane flying near to us and then police with guns. There were kids crying and some people looking very worried. People were saying it could be a bomb." He said even after the man was arrested and taken off, "people were still worrying that he could have left something behind."

The RAF said Typhoon fighters were launched from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire as part of its "quick reaction alert role" when the pilot requested assistance.

Josh Hartley, who videoed the jet from on board, told the BBC that passengers had not been told what was going on. They were told to remain seated for up to an hour after landing. "I found out what was happening on Twitter," he said. "Some people are shaken up. I'm a bit shaken up."

Another passenger, Matthew Cox, said: "Armed police came on and found a guy, searched him and made him stand up with his hands on his head and took him off the plane."

In a statement, Qatar Airways said: "The crew on board had received a threat about a possible device and Qatar Airways immediately took all the necessary precautions to alert British authorities."

Manchester airport said nine incoming flights were diverted to other airports.