United flight forced to make emergency landing in St Louis after passenger made bomb threat, report says

Passenger arrested after plane diverted to Lambert St. Louis International Airport

A United Airlines flight from Dallas to Chicago was forced to divert to St. Louis after a passenger allegedly made a bomb threat.

The plane was diverted to Lambert St. Louis International Airport, Missouri, Sunday morning and a passenger has been arrested, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The man who was arrested “said there was a bomb in his wife’s luggage,” sources told the outlet.

Passengers were evacuated and were waiting on the concourse, the airport’s director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge told the newspaper.

The Chicago-bound flight left Dallas at 6:57 a.m. and landed at Lambert around 8:40 a.m.

A United Airlines flight from Dallas to Chicago was forced to divert after a passenger made a bomb threat (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Bomb and arson teams were still searching the aircraft more than two hours later, according to the director.

No injuries have been reported, she added.

“United flight 380 from Dallas to Chicago landed safely in St. Louis to address a potential security concern,” a United spokesperson told The Independent. “Law enforcement searched and cleared the aircraft. The flight will continue on to Chicago this afternoon.”

The incident follows another bomb threat on a United flight from Houston to Washington, D.C. on November 4.

All flights in and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia were temporarily halted.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later confirmed the flight landed safely and the Federal Aviation Administration later received the all clear.

Passengers have faced significant travel disruption and cancellations over the last two weeks due to the government shutdown, which ended last week after more than 40 days.

Thousands of flights were cancelled across major U.S. airports after the FAA ordered a 10 percent reduction in air traffic as air traffic controllers, unpaid for nearly a month, stopped reporting for duty, prompting federal officials to limit travel over potential safety risks.

The government has been short of air traffic controllers for years, and multiple presidential administrations have tried to persuade retirement-age controllers to remain on the job.