United passenger is arrested for mid-air bomb risk as flight makes emergency touchdown in St Louis
A passenger has been arrested after a United Airlines flight from Dallas to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing over an alleged bomb threat.
The plane was diverted to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Missouri, at around 8.40am Sunday.
The man who was arrested reportedly ‘said there was a bomb in his wife’s luggage,’ sources told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Bomb and arson teams were dispatched to the aircraft after it landed, and were still searching the plane more than two hours later, an official told the newspaper.
Passengers were evacuated and waited on the concourse, the airport’s director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge reportedly said.
A spokesperson from United Airlines told the Daily Mail that ‘flight 380 from Dallas to Chicago landed safely in St. Louis to address a potential security concern.’
The airline noted that law enforcement searched and cleared the Boeing 737-700, which had been carrying 119 passengers and five crew members.
The flight took off again from St. Louis earlier this afternoon and has since landed in Chicago, the airline said.
The plane was diverted to Lambert St. Louis International Airport, Missouri , at around 8.40am Sunday morning
The plane was diverted to Lambert St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Missouri , at around 8.40am Sunday
The incident comes shortly after the recent bomb threat that occurred on a United flight from Houston to Washington DC on November 4.
All flights in and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) were halted, causing delays to ripple across the US.
The ground stop was lifted after 1pm ET and replaced with a ground delay, causing average waits of 51 minutes and delays of up to 151 minutes for some flights.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated online that the flight landed safely and a search was conducted of the aircraft.
Duffy mentioned that the Federal Aviation Administration was clear to resume operations and thanked the first responders on the scene.
Flight radar around DCA showed several planes circling the airport during the ground stop on November 4
Hours later, hundreds of passengers were rushed off a Delta flight in New York after a crew member reported a bomb threat on board – just hours after a similar scare in DC.
The plane bound from LaGuardia Airport to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International on Tuesday evening was promptly evacuated due to a ‘safety concern’, the airline said at the time.
The incidents happened on the same day as Duffy issued a stark warning about the impact of the 44-day government shutdown on the airline industry.
Air traffic control staff did not receive their paychecks due to the shutdown, prompting absences and sparking safety fears at airports across the country.
