United flight from Newark to Los Angeles diverts to Chicago after suspicious bag and note are found in bathroom saying aircraft was going to ‘blow up’
- United Flight 1533 departed Newark Liberty International Airport at 6:05 a.m. and landed at O’Hare Airport at 7:44 a.m. Chicago time
- According to an initial police investigation, a suspicious bag was found on board the plane and a threat was written in the bathroom
- The plane’s 202 passengers have been safely evacuated and the plane is now being searched at a remote location by officials, police dogs and robots.
A United Airlines flight headed to Los Angeles International Airport was diverted to Chicago on Wednesday morning after a bomb threat.
United Flight 1533 departed Newark Liberty International Airport at 6:05 a.m. and landed at O’Hare Airport at 7:44 a.m. Chicago time.
A suspicious bag was found on board the flight, KTLA reported.
A note was also found in the bathroom stating that the plane would explode, an initial police investigation revealed.
The plane’s 202 passengers were evacuated and the plane was searched at a remote location at O’Hare Airport, police said in a statement.
United Flight 1533 departed Newark Liberty International Airport at 6:05 a.m. and landed at O’Hare Airport at 7:44 a.m. Chicago time
The plane’s 202 passengers were evacuated and the plane was searched at a remote location at O’Hare Airport, police said.
Police dogs were dispatched to the plane upon landing, with a K-9 finding a suspicious bag and a robot deployed to remove it
Police dogs were deployed to the plane upon landing, with one K-9 finding a suspicious bag and a robot being used to remove it, CBS reported.
Both local police and the FBI are investigating the incident.
“Someone might have gone into the bathroom and made a bomb threat on the bathroom window and now we’ve made an emergency landing in Chicago,” passenger Rashad Robinson wrote on X.
“We are being held in buses away from the plane, about a mile away from the main O’hare airport,” he explained.
“They’re going to search everyone’s bags and we don’t have a clear plan to go to LA or back to Newark,” he explained.
Columnist Ian O’Connor was also on board the United flight and confirmed that all passengers disembarked safely.
“We were only told on the air that a situation necessitated the diversion,” he explained on X.
‘The threat was revealed to us when the plane was parked and police and fire engines approached.
Addition: ‘Everything away safely. Made for a tense last 40 minutes in the air, but the crew did a good job of being firm and urgent without showing panic.”