A flight to New York was diverted and passengers were evacuated after a “beeping sound” was reported on board.
United Airlines flight 2092 took off from Chicago O’Hare airport on Saturday, 18 April for an hour-and-a-half flight to New York.
Just after crossing the state border into Pennsylvania, halfway through the flight, the Boeing 737 diverted its course and flew south to Pittsburgh airport.
In an air traffic control recording obtained by The Sun, pilots can be heard reporting a “beeping noise” heard on the plane.
“We’ve got an issue up here. We’re getting a sequential beeping of a suspected item on board. We are going to have to start treating this as a potential bomb,” the pilot says.
“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.”
“It’s underneath the door, it’s underneath the floorboards,” the pilot added.
Officials have yet to comment or confirm the “beeping sound” report, but Pittsburgh’s FBI branch released a statement and said it was aware of a “reported threat” on board a flight headed to New York.
It said that the plane was diverted to Pittsburgh and all passengers and crew were evacuated. Footage posted by local news station WTAE showed a United jet at the airport with its emergency slides deployed.
An FBI bomb squad and the Allegheny County police bomb squad were both dispatched to the airport.
The county police said the bomb squads and a K9 unit conducted a sweep of the aircraft, passengers and luggage, but did not find anything, so the incident was cleared by authorities.
Other flights were not affected at Pittsburgh, the airport confirmed in a statement, and passengers on the diverted flight were rebooked on another plane.
In a statement, a United spokesperson said: “Flight 2092 from Chicago O’Hare to New York LaGuardia landed in Pittsburgh on Saturday morning to address a potential security concern. Passengers evacuated the aircraft safely via slides.
“Passengers boarded a different aircraft to New York LaGuardia and departed at 4.24pm ET.”
The FBI is continuing to investigate the incident.
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