A United Airlines flight heading from Chicago to New York diverted to Pittsburgh on Saturday morning after crew members reported a possible security issue, forcing passengers to evacuate down emergency slides.
Flight 2092 had departed Chicago O'Hare and was en route to LaGuardia when the diversion occurred. The plane landed at Pittsburgh International Airport, where all passengers exited via slides deployed on the tarmac.
The FBI and bomb technicians immediately responded to the scene. Local law enforcement, including the Allegheny County Police Bomb Squad and a canine unit trained in explosives detection, swept the aircraft, passengers, and luggage. The search yielded no threats.
"The Allegheny County Police Bomb Squad was requested for a report of a plane being diverted to Pittsburgh International Airport due to a reported security issue," the department said in a statement. "Our EOD team and K9s conducted a sweep of the aircraft, passengers and luggage with negative results."
Law enforcement cleared the scene, and the airport remained open and operational throughout the incident. Passengers were rebooked on another flight to continue to New York.
Neither federal nor local officials disclosed specifics about the nature of the threat or whether anyone was detained in connection with the report.
Author James Rodriguez: "Emergency slides at 30,000 feet over a vague threat is always going to get law enforcement moving fast, but the all-clear here is the right outcome for what could have been chaos."
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