The airline told PEOPLE that flight 1533 was diverted to O’Hare after a “potential security concern”
A United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles with 202 passengers on board was diverted to Chicago Wednesday morning due to a “potential safety concern,” United said in a statement to PEOPLE.
Several passengers on Flight 1533 said the security issue was a bomb threat written in one of the plane’s lavatories, but authorities did not immediately confirm the nature of the threat.
“United flight 1533 was diverted to Chicago this morning due to a potential security concern,” United said in a statement. “The flight landed safely, was met by local police and took off again for Los Angeles earlier this afternoon.”
“Early this morning, FBI-Chicago and local partners responded to an aircraft incident at O’Hare Airport. There is no indication that there is an immediate threat to public safety or the facility itself at this time,” the FBI told PEOPLE in a separate statement.
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“Someone allegedly went into the bathroom and threatened to bomb the bathroom window and now we’ve made an emergency landing in Chicago,” passenger Rashad Robinson posted on Xformerly known as Twitter.
“On United flight 1533 this morning from Newark to LAX, emergency landing in Chicago after a bomb threat was found in the bathroom of the plane. We were told in the air only that the situation forced a diversion. The threat was discovered to us when the plane was parked and the police and the fire trucks started to approach,” published by journalist Ian O’Connorwho was also on the flight.
“As we got closer to Chicago, they were adamant that everyone stay in their seats, like they started yelling at passengers if they started to get up. They said, ‘we’ll have the authorities waiting to arrest you when we land,'” the passenger said. Richard Fickling for ABC 7 Chicago.
The plane was taxied to a remote area of O’Hare, where emergency services and police surrounded it.
An unnamed passenger told CBS 2 the passengers were disembarked while their bags were being checked. The media reported that a bomb-sniffing K-9 found one suspicious bag and that a robot was sent to remove it. The police questioned the passenger who checked that bag.
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The FBI did not immediately say what the contents of the bag were or whether anyone was taken into custody.
United told PEOPLE that the same flight and aircraft departed for Los Angeles later Wednesday afternoon.
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