An Air India Boeing 777 flying from Mumbai to New York has made an emergency landing at Stansted Airport following a suspected bomb threat. The aircraft was escorted into the airport by fighter jets, as is normal with such a security threat.

London Stansted is one of the UK's designated airports to handle security threats, along with Prestwick in Scotland. The airport is ideal for such emergencies as it is away from a populated area. Additionally, it has a large area away from the terminal to safely deal with threats. A deleted Air India tweet suggests that a bomb threat caused the diversion. However, details can be sketchy in the initial aftermath of an incident.

Flight AI191

Air India flight AI191 departed from Mumbai at 04:49 local time. The flight was delayed as it was originally due to depart at 01:30. The aircraft made the usual progress en route to the United States. However, above Northern Ireland, the aircraft made a U-turn.

Air India Boeing 777 Bomb Threat
The aircraft turned back towards Stansted Airport above Northern Ireland. Photo: FlightRadar24.com

Following the U-turn, the Mumbai to New York flight made its way to Stansted Airport escorted by fighter jets. It touched down at the Essex Airport at around 10:20 local time. Once on the ground, the aircraft was escorted to a remote stand where it was met by Essex Police. As Stansted is a designated emergency airport for the UK, Essex Police are specially trained for such occurrences.

What are people saying?

When contacted for comment, Essex Police referred us to their twitter page where the following announcement is posted:

An aircraft was diverted to #Stansted Airport at around 9.50am today (Thursday 27 June) following reports of a security alert.

The plane is currently at the airport and officers are making enquiries. pic.twitter.com/ViaQ1b6Tk2

— Essex Police (@EssexPoliceUK) June 27, 2019

We also contacted Stansted Airport who gave us the following statement:

“An Air India Boeing 777 diverted into Stansted at approximately 1015 this morning. The aircraft, which was flying from Mumbai to New York, landed safely with Essex Police in attendance. It is parked on an isolated stand away from the normal airport operations. This resulted in some minor delays to flights, but we expect operations to return to normal shortly.”

Air India Boeing 777 Bomb Threat
Thankfully the Air India Boeing 777 landed without incident at Stansted Airport. Photo: Tom Boon - Simple Flying

Simple Flying was unable to immediately reach an Air India spokesperson for comment. However, the BBC captured a tweet from Air India which said that the flight had diverted due to a bomb threat. This tweet has since been deleted from the carrier's twitter page.

Were you onboard flight AI191? What do you make of the alarming incident? Let us know in the comments!

This is a developing story which will be updated as appropriate.