Police in Essex, England have verified that the Kenya Airways (KQ) flight redirected to London’s Stansted Airport on Thursday underwent a thorough inspection and no concerning items were found on board.
The KQ plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was intercepted by fighter jets on its way to London before being diverted to Stansted for security clearance by U.K government security personnel. Stansted is the designated airport for dealing with security issues in the UK.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, Essex Police noted that after their investigations, the plane was returned to the airport, which continued to operate without any disruptions.
“Officers have established there is nothing of concern on board a flight diverted to #Stansted Airport. Officers carried out enquiries and established there was nothing of concern on board,” read the statement.
“The plane has been handed back to the airport which has remained operational throughout.”
On Thursday, KQ allayed fears raised by the interception of the flight by the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF).
In a statement, the national carrier said the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had been cleared to proceed with the journey.
KQ further stated that the security threat which caused the diversion was of “low credibility”.
“We received a security alert on the 12th Oct 2023 at approximately 10:30am, from the UK Security agencies. This threat has since been established to have low credibility,” said the airline in a statement.
“The aircraft landed safely at London Stansted Airport, the incident has been stood down and the airport is open and is operating as normal. The security agencies cleared the aircraft and will be departing for London Heathrow to resume normal operations.”
