All of London’s international airports (Heathrow, Stansted, City, Gatwick, Luton) came to a grinding halt for a brief moment this morning and onlookers could see 2 Typhoon jets following a Ryanair flight from Lithuania to London.
The heavily armed planes were called to intercept a full Ryanair flight after a bomb threat was made. Ryanair had received a call claiming that there was a suspect package on board and given the great number of terrorist attacks in the UK already this year (several events took place in London and a bomb exploded at a packed venue in Manchester), police did not want to take any risks.
The plane, which was destined to land at London Lutuon airport, was diverted to Stansted airport where armed cops, ambulances and fire crews swarmed the tarmac in great numbers.
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAF?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAF</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/typhoon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#typhoon</a> fighter circling <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stansted?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#stansted</a> airport <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ryanair?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ryanair</a> bomb scare <a href="https://t.co/mTvtbZ0ixA">pic.twitter.com/mTvtbZ0ixA</a></p>— Andy Kirby (@AndrewJohnKirby) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewJohnKirby/status/915498902018756608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2017</a></blockquote>
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A spokesman for Ryanair: "This flight from Kaunas to London Luton diverted to London Stansted in line with procedures after Lithuanian authorities received a suspected hoax security alert. The aircraft landed normally at Stansted and customers will be transferred to Luton by coach when cleared to do so."
A passenger live tweeted the events as soon as the plane had landed: "Everyone now on busses. Escorted off plane by armed police all standing in line. Around 20-25 fully armed officers."
The Typhoon jets were scrambled form RAF Coningsby, Lincolshire and intercepted the flight in about 20 minutes, the UK Ministry of Defense declared: “The RAF can confirm Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon aircraft were launched this morning from RAF Coningsby to intercept a civilian aircraft. The aircraft was safely escorted to Stansted airport. The Typhoon aircraft were authorised to transit at supersonic speed for operational reasons; any inconvenience caused to local residents is regretted.”
It was revealed later this morning that there were no explosives on board the plane, but it is clear for everyone in the UK that the country is highly sensitive to any next terrorist attack.
Source:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4608196/london-stansted-airport-ryanair-flight-raf-jets/
