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11JUN18 - UA 971 (FCO-ORD) Diverted to SNN for security reasons

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11JUN18 - UA 971 (FCO-ORD) Diverted to SNN for security reasons

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Old Jun 11, 2018, 11:37 am
  #1  
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11JUN18 - UA 971 (FCO-ORD) Diverted to SNN for security reasons

Saw this headline come across Bloomberg. Anyone have further information?
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 11:48 am
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https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...-terror-UA-971
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 12:16 pm
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From the article link provided above:
A UNITED Airlines flight has been diverted to Ireland after a bomb threat was found scrawled in one of the plane’s toilet during a flight from Rome to Chicago.


United Airlines flight UA-971 was diverted to Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland after the message was discovered en route to Chicago from Rome.

The crew are believed to have discovered a bomb warning written in the toilet, necessitating a diversion to Shannon, where it landed at 1.42pm.

Fire brigade units and police met the Beoing 767 as it landed. Passengers disembarked 40 minute later.

Passengers are now being investigated with police taking writing samples from all those on board. Luggage in the cabin and hold are also being analysed.

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Old Jun 11, 2018, 12:37 pm
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Was it literally written in the toilet or does toilet here just refer to the lav?
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 12:42 pm
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Originally Posted by rufflesinc
Was it literally written in the toilet or does toilet here just refer to the lav?
One question is how do we know this note was from this particular flight? How do we know it was not done on the ground at FCO during turn around? There can be many sources from where the note was written. It could be anyone from the cleaning crew, maintenance to a crewmember or passenger on another flight on the same aircraft a few days back. It will be interesting to note if this flight# was specifically mentioned in the threat.

Kudos to the vigilant crew member for finding the note and acting upon it quickly. Lets just hope its a hoax and the perpetrator will be found and that all passengers are screened in a through and efficient manner and that they can get on their way to ORD in a timely manner.

Originally Posted by goodeats21
From the article link provided above:
Toilet is the British term for lav!

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jun 13, 2018 at 8:48 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 1:08 pm
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Originally Posted by danielonn

Kudos to the vigilant crew member for finding the note and acting upon it quickly. Lets just hope its a hoax and the perpetrator will be found and that all passengers are screened in a through and efficient manner and that they can get on their way to ORD in a timely manner.
UA, Flightstats and Flightaware are all showing the onward flight as cancelled. Is this just a placeholder while things get sorted out and it will be reinstated, or could it actually be cancelled?
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 1:11 pm
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Originally Posted by danielonn
[...] Lets just hope its a hoax and the perpetrator will be found and that all passengers are screened in a through and efficient manner and that they can get on their way to ORD in a timely manner.
UA971 was cancelled. Unless UA plans to rotate out the regularly scheduled 757s for a bigger a/c, accommodates pax on other carriers, or waits until the crew rest time expires, that could be a long wait...
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 1:30 pm
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Originally Posted by CHOPCHOP767
UA971 was cancelled. Unless UA plans to rotate out the regularly scheduled 757s for a bigger a/c, accommodates pax on other carriers, or waits until the crew rest time expires, that could be a long wait...
This is from the Irish Times a few minutes ago;

The flight has since been cancelled and that passengers will be sent to local hotels for the night.

The aircraft is currently scheduled to depart tomorrow at 3pm.


I'm thinking the crew must have timed out. I do wonder if they're trying to rebook if possilble, Oh, I just looked at the SNN website, and it looks like all of today's flights to the US had departed, and given the timing I don't see how they could have done something creative like backtrack people to LHR in time to make the afternoon flight, so I guess they're stuck overnight. The first flight I see in the morning is AA to Phildelphia at 11, so they might as well wait around until the planned 3pm ORD departure.
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 1:36 pm
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A few more details from the Irish Times:
Investigating gardaí (Irish Police) began the lengthy process of taking handwriting samples from each of the passengers in an effort to establish whether one of them had written the message. All the passengers’ hand baggage was also removed for security screening while luggage in the cargo hold was also expected to be examined.
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 1:55 pm
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I wonder if they let passengers pre clear customs while in SNN
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 2:04 pm
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Originally Posted by claaaaaydavis
I wonder if they let passengers pre clear customs while in SNN
These passengers didn't pay a UQ surcharge in their ticket, so probably no, except if UA covered the charge for them (assuming CBP SNN was also willing to process them).

But probably no.
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Old Jun 11, 2018, 2:22 pm
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Originally Posted by milepig
This is from the Irish Times a few minutes ago;

The flight has since been cancelled and that passengers will be sent to local hotels for the night.

The aircraft is currently scheduled to depart tomorrow at 3pm.


I'm thinking the crew must have timed out. I do wonder if they're trying to rebook if possilble, Oh, I just looked at the SNN website, and it looks like all of today's flights to the US had departed, and given the timing I don't see how they could have done something creative like backtrack people to LHR in time to make the afternoon flight, so I guess they're stuck overnight. The first flight I see in the morning is AA to Phildelphia at 11, so they might as well wait around until the planned 3pm ORD departure.
Can certainly think of worse places to be stuck... KWA comes to mind Still, annoying to say the least.
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Old Jun 13, 2018, 1:08 pm
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Would Global Entry be helpful in this situation?
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Old Jun 13, 2018, 2:02 pm
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Originally Posted by danielonn
One question is how do we know this note was from this particular flight? How do we know it was not done on the ground at FCO during turn around? There can be many sources from where the note was written. It could be anyone from the cleaning crew, maintenance to a crewmember or passenger on another flight on the same aircraft a few days back. It will be interesting to note if this flight# was specifically mentioned in the threat.

Kudos to the vigilant crew member for finding the note and acting upon it quickly. Lets just hope its a hoax and the perpetrator will be found and that all passengers are screened in a through and efficient manner and that they can get on their way to ORD in a timely manner.
"We" don't know and don't need to know anything. This is what the police do and presumably one of the things they will do is verify with UA that the lav was cleaned before boarding at FCO and that the cabin crew, as part of its routine pre-flight security check, did check that lav.

GE will do for these passengers what GE does in general. CBP, actually DHS, will reauthorize the flight from DUB and will consult with UA and its own people on the ground as to whether it is easier and better to process passengers through Pre-Clearance at SNN or on arrival at ORD.
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Old Jun 13, 2018, 2:13 pm
  #15  
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Generally speaking, people with bombs who intend to detonate them, don't usually scratch warning messages about it in toilets

That message could have been there for hours, days, weeks or who knows how long. Forcing people to give handwriting samples?
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