United Airlines flight diverts and passengers escape on emergency slides amid ‘bomb risk’ after pilots ‘hear beeping gadget’

A United Airlines flight was forced to divert following reports of bomb on board.

The New York City-bound plane was rerouted to Pittsburgh International Airport, United Airlines confirmed. 

The jet took off from Chicago and climbed to an altitude of 37,000 feet before an emergency was declared above Lake Erie.

Flight audio from flight UA2092 posted on LiveATC.net indicated that pilots on the flight became alarmed after noticing a ‘beeping’ device.

‘We’ve got an issue up here. We’re getting a sequential beeping of a suspected item onboard. We are going to have to start treating this as a potential bomb,’ the pilot said.

‘We are going to need to go and start a diversion and get things settled. It’s a beeping noise, sequential, one beep per second.’

United Airlines confirmed to the Daily Mail that the Boeing 373 was diverted for a ‘potential security concern,’ but did not confirm it was a bomb threat. 

The 159 passengers and six crew members onboard had to deplane via slides onto the runway, United said. 

A United Airlines flight was forced to divert following reports of bomb on board

It diverted to Pittsburgh and the passengers had to deplane via the slides, United said 

The flight attendants reported the noise to the pilots, they told air traffic control, saying the noise got louder as time went on. 

‘It’s underneath the door, it’s underneath the floorboards,’ the pilot said. 

The plane landed safety around 12:30pm and no injuries were reported. 

The Allegheny County Police Department is assisting. 

A bomb squad is currently investigating the plane, the police department told the Daily Mail. 

The airport remains open and operational. 

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.