Mess: American Boeing 787 Diverts Over Non-Credible Bomb Threat

Diversion to Rome is probably because AA has another 787 crew there that could continue the flight. This was probably the closest airport where that was true. London, Paris etc might have worked too.

Suspect you’ll see the flight continue in a few hours.

I don't think the onboard footage of the fighter is of this intercept. If i remember correctly, the isignia in the upper right is of the Russian Federation military

Ben, how many miles would it take to upgrade on a flight from Chicago to Dayton in mid-June on United? I know they fly an E175 on the route.... any tips?

The attached footage portraying being onboard a fighter is from the Russian military. The insignia on the upper right is Russian. Probably and excerpt of attack footage from Ukraine…

Weird, my original post wasn’t showing for me earlier. Ignore the duplicate comments

Alright, let’s game this out. You’re the captain of an American (flag country, not airline) aeroplane. You receive a bomb threat you deem sufficiently credible over Caspian Sea. Why not land in nearby airports?

Well, the Caspian Sea has Iran to the South, and Russia to the North. You don’t want to be surrounded by Iranian/Russkiy fighter jets telling you to land at unfriendly territory, effectively making you and your passengers hostage. So you divert to friendly skies.

But… why all the way to Rome? Large AA ops there, enough to have spare crews so passengers can get placed in a hotel courtesy of your ground crew, and flown onwards by Rome-based crew? I would’ve diverted to Türkiye, esp. Adana (Incirlik air base has NATO forces) to assist with bomb detection and follow-up. But more importantly because I’d have to land ASAP

Better backtracking to Rome than landing an aircraft full of pax and crew with no visas in Tbilisi or Baku, I guess.

This is pretty ridiculous. When in history has a bomb threat to a plane already in the air been made prior to a bomb actually being used on that plane? And even suppose it were remotely possible, if the plane is already 8 hours into the flight, something different is going to happen by landing 2 hours from now versus continuing to the destination for 4 hours?

At that point over the Caspian Sea the plane was closer to Delhi as it was to Rome, so what gives?

A stupidly off topic question especially for a sub 500 mile flight SMH

Was Baku or Tbilisi not capable of accepting this flight? If the threat was real seems better to get the aircraft on the ground ASAP. FCO was further than continuing to the destination…

Sheesh...united.com. Don't be so lazy.

If I were the captain, and *knew* this was an obvious case of false alarm (with no actual threat on board) due to the India social media “threat” hoaxes, I would assume that continuing to India might create more “drama” on the ground, if they even let me enter India airspace. So it makes perfect sense to backtrack and divert to the nearest AA station in Europe, rather than “buying into the drama” and doing an emergency landing in a random place like Baku.

This makes sense if the bomb threat obviously isn’t credible, but it’s being irrationally treated as such by Indian authorities. I’d wager this is an entirely domestic-to-India issue, basically the aviation version of “swatting”, which AA and the crew of this plane knew was and entirely false alarm… but which meant they could no longer land in India, so they had to backtrack, and Rome is a reasonably convenient place to land that doesn’t create even more logistical headaches over an obvious false alarm.

I bet the service onboard stopped once they started heading to Rome. Due to the “security” concern.

ABC covered this. Indian ATC wouldn't allow them in until the flight was inspected elsewhere

The Indians. Naturally.

Odd they went all the way back to FCO. Surely massive IST had capacity and Turkey might be easier for more folks to enter the country? Quite a bit closer and the flight path passed almost over the Bosporus.

Just look at the map. it's pretty clear you dont want to land the plane in any of the surrounding countries. If the plane continued and had to make an emergency landing, now you're over Pakistan or Afghanistan or possibly having to go into Iran.
Baku and Tbilisi would be no point, and probably wasn'tt capable of handling something like this. Not sure why they didnt go to Turkey, but going to Rome was obviously b/c AA has ops there, though to backtrack that far, might as well of landed in Delhi

As inconvenient as this operation was for all concerned, one has to acknowledge that the only losses incurred was time.
AA delivered all passengers and crew to safety, therefore, all concerned should be commended for their part in this drama.

Both Georgia and Azerbaijan have a much more liberal visa policy than the Schengen Zone and definitely easier for both Indians and Americans visa-wise (who would presumably be the bulk of pax on this aircraft)

Both Georgia and Azerbaijan have a much more liberal visa policy than the Schengen Zone and definitely easier for both Indians and Americans visa-wise (who would presumably be the bulk of pax on this aircraft)

I don't know what happened in this case, but the Schengen Border Codex allows for issuance of visa at the border checkpoint in exceptional circumstances, which is mostly intended for situations like this, when someone ends up in the EU without planning it (against their will, if you want). If reasonability is applied, it's fairly safe to assume that people flying from the US to India are not likely to ad hoc decide to stay in the EU long term illegally.

The people who post these threats on social media need to be dealt with much more harshly. Ideally executed. They are basically terrorists, even if just 15yo posting on social media.

Yes, and to be thorough we should exterminate all of their species, there is no other way to stop them…

There is service on American?

I'd say Indian capital has a much better track record in recent times of avoiding aviation accidents so if I were the AA pilot i'd keep my voice down and follow their instructions.

Why not divert to DOH? AA serves and base for OW partner QR

And your question is tied to the article, how? Thanks!

Husband was on the flight. AA had no replacement crew at FCO. Originally - last night - was told the flight would leave for DEL this morning (2/24) after crew rest over night. But this morning they canceled the flight again and as of now the flight is scheduled to resume at noon on 2/25. So basically two nights stuck at FCO, that's assuming no further delay...

Presumably because they can’t overfly Iran or Afghanistan by hooking a right turn or overflying Iraq or Syria by backtracking a bit. I thought about Athens but I believe those AA flights are all summer seasonal.

Funny to see my home airport of DAY mentioned on here. Anywhere between 7,500 miles and 20,000 miles+$75 depending on the fare class originally booked. Unequivocally not worth it, unless you're upgrading from a full Y-fare and checking two bags and even then the value proposition is marginal

That makes absolutely no sense. US airlines cannot overfly Russian airspace anymore and absolutely 0 airlines globally are flying over Ukraine. Also, the tweet is literally directly from the Italian Air Force

Keep in mind that it wasn’t the captain that decided to divert to FCO, it was American’s IOC. All the resources of the company are centered there and a lot of different groups would need to be consulted before a decision was made on where to go. One obvious issue to consider could have been maintenance. If the crew had a mechanical issue enroute, that didn’t affect safety of flight, it still would have needed to be addressed prior to its next departure by an AA mechanic or an approved contract mechanic. Believe me I know from personal experience that flying an extra two hours is nothing compared to landing at an airport that doesn’t have the ground facilities needed to service the aircraft and passengers.

Russian? It clearly says “Aeronautica Militare” on latin script. Can we think twice (or once) before posting please?

Would you have any statistics on the % of flights diverted by major airlines? While this was a valid reason for a diversion, it seems US airlines like to divert at any first opportunity, often for minor reasons.

Pakistan would be PERFECTLY fine.