- A flight from LA to Vancouver made an emergency landing in San Francisco on Monday night.
- The diversion followed a bomb threat made by someone on the flight, an airport official said.
- It was not clear who had made the threat, one passenger said on X.
A United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver made an emergency landing after an alleged bomb threat was made, airport officials said.
Flight UA1909, which left LAX at 7:13 p.m. on Monday, was due to land in Vancouver about three hours later.
However, about an hour into the journey the plane turned around and headed to San Francisco, tracking data from Flight Radar 24 shows.
San Francisco Airport's duty manager said the diversion was caused by a passenger on the flight making some sort of bomb threat, outlets including ABC7 News reported.
On landing, FBI investigators boarded the plane to speak to passengers and it soon became apparent that the supposed threat was not credible.
One passenger who said they were on the flight posted on X that the threat had been made via AirDrop and it was not clear who was responsible.
Bomb threat on my flight (LA -> Vancouver) just now, had to make an emergency landing. FBI interviewed me because I was one of the people who got the threat on air drop. This has been one crazy weekend bruh 😭
— Mizu 🌊 (@MizuRL) November 14, 2023
The airline said it was now working to get the 148 passengers on the diverted flight to Vancouver.
Online flight data showed passengers were stuck overnight in San Francisco airport. Their replacement flight is due to land in Vancouver at 9 a.m. PT Tuesday – 11 hours after they were scheduled to land.
Bomb threats are not uncommon on US flights and have added to the rising number of "unruly passenger" incidents recorded this year.
As of November, 1,780 reports of dangerous or threatening behavior on board a flight have been made to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In March, a United flight was grounded in Vermont after a note, discovered in the plane's bathroom, indicated there was a bomb onboard. Nothing suspicious was found.
United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.
