MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - Eight Ukrainians held at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in connection with a hoax bomb threat have been released, one of the detainees said Thursday.

"I was told about criminal charges brought against me in connection with a hoax terrorist threat and then they let me go," Sergei Klimenko said.

The detainees, including a regional deputy from the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party and several businessmen, were on board a plane that departed from Moscow to the Pacific city of Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka Wednesday night but returned to the Russian capital after three hours in the air due a technical problem.

An airport official earlier said the group was given the opportunity to board another flight but six of the Ukrainians attempted to delay it because two of their colleagues, who were apparently drunk, were not allowed to board the plane. When airport officials refused to let the drunken Ukrainians on board, one of the Ukrainian passengers from the group announced that there was a bomb in his luggage.

"Police officers and airport officials checked the aircraft but did not find any suspicious devices either on board or in the luggage," the official said. "After that the police detained the Ukrainian citizens."

Klimenko said he was heading to Domodedovo airport in Moscow with the rest of the group to continue their travel to Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka but had to report to the police at Sheremetyevo within 30 days to testify during investigation.

"The charges against me are cooked-up," Klimenko said. "We had two bags on board and none of them had been checked."

But an airport official said the passenger had confessed to the hoax, which he allegedly made up as a simple joke when he was intoxicated.