Police in Essex, England, confirmed that the Kenya Airways (KQ) flight that was redirected to London’s Stansted Airport on Thursday was thoroughly inspected and that no suspicious items were discovered 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 UK government security personnel. Stansted is the designated airport in the United Kingdom for dealing with security issues.
Essex Police said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday that after their investigations, the plane was returned to the airport, which continued to operate normally.
“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 concerns raised by the flight’s interception by the Royal Air Force (RAF) of the United Kingdom.
The national carrier said in a statement that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had been cleared to continue the journey.
KQ also stated that the security threat that caused the diversion had “low credibility.”
“We received a security alert on the 12th Oct 2023 at approximately 10:30 am, 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.”
