A Southwest Airlines flight has been grounded after a mid-air "security threat". Flight 2094, going outbound to Fort Lauderdale from Nashville, was forced to divert and land at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport on Friday night.
As reported by The Sun, a threat was reported while the plane was still in the air, which caused a diversion and forced landing. A now-deleted TikTok video, allegedly of the incident, shows terrified passengers holding their hands above their heads as police clad in tactical gear dragged a man off the plane. The caption on the video claimed there was a bomb threat. No official body has explicitly confirmed this as of yet.
After the police stormed the grounded aircraft, the passengers were able to continue their journey. They boarded another aircraft and arrived safely at Fort Lauderdale just before 3:30am.
In a statement, Southwest Airlines commented on the incident, describing it as a "possible security matter". A spokesperson said, "We appreciate the professionalism of our flight crew and sincerely apologize to our customers for the significant delay. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees."
The Atlanta Police Department also confirmed its involvement.
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There Was Also a Bomb Threat on a Flight Bound for Newark
This comes after another, hopefully unrelated, bomb threat was called in on March 5. Flight 907, bound for Newark Liberty International Airport, had military planes scramble to monitor it. According to CNBC, the Scandinavian Airlines flight was monitored by NORAD as it passed through Canadian and American airspace. The bomb threat was found by NORAD to be unfounded.
NORAD released a statement about the incident. It reads that they deployed the military jets "out of an abundance of caution". They "monitored the airliner from a distance" before it landed at Newark.
The disruption caused New York's LaGuardia airport to pause arrivals, leading to delays for many passengers. The US Federal Aviation Administration said that this was in order to "accommodate the response" to the "reported security issue".
We are glad that everyone in both incidents is safe, and hope that these bomb threats do not become commonplace.
