Emirates flight taking off from Athens intercepted over Sardinia on suspicion of terrorism: it was a false alarm
Alarm in the Italian skies when in the early evening of today, November 10, flight EK209 departed regularly from Athens and [...]
Emirates
EWR
Alarm in the Italian skies when in the early evening of today, Nov. 10., flight EK209 departed regularly from Athens to New York EWR was intercepted over Sardinia and escorted back to Piraeus airport.
Ek209 Flight
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The Athens/New York flight, operated with a Boeing 777 is one of the two "fifth freedom" routes of the company from Europe to New York, the other is the route Malpensa/New York with a daily flight operated by an A380.
Flight EK 209 departed regularly from Dubai this morning, arriving in Athens at 3:25 p.m., leaving two hours later for New York (through this ploy Emirates can operate these connections from Europe to the United States). Two hours after taking off from Greece, while flying over the northern tip of Sardinia, near Alghero, something happened.
As seen from the FlightRadar24 plot, triple 7 made a series of rounds over Sardinia and then reverse course and return to the departure port.
Also thanks to Flightrada24, we can see how the Boeing pilots no longer flew over land until they landed, a route forced by the closure of Italian airspace
The crew reportedly raised the alarm about the presence of a suspicious passenger on board, this according to reports from many Greek and international sites. Other rumors picked up by Greek media speak instead of reports of a bomb on board.
According to reports in La Repubblica, there was also a hypothetical terrorism alert that came directly from the US. Alert that would immediately trigger the takeoff of two Greek Air Force jets and the closure of airspace in France and Italy for the aircraft.
False alarm
#ek209 Emirates Flight EK209 pic.twitter.com/bj4cBTbFyD
- Strawberryvantinos (@fragolevantinos) November 10, 2022
After all the usual checks and after several hours the situation returned to normal, fortunately it was a false alarm. At the moment the Boeing 777 is still in Athens, it is likely that the 228 passengers on board will be re-routed on the flight from Dubai this afternoon and/or on other flights.
