A Ryanair flight traveling from Lithuania to England was intercepted by a pair of Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighter jets Wednesday morning over a potential security threat, according to the Associated Press.
The Boeing 737 was en route to Luton Airport from Kaunas but was escorted to London Stansted Airport out of an abundance of caution.
Ryanair confirmed that "Lithuanian authorities received a suspected hoax security alert."
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"The aircraft landed normally at Stansted and customers will be transferred to Luton by coach when cleared to do so," an airline spokesman said.
The Daily Mail reported passengers were escorted off the plane by armed officers and told to leave their luggage at the back of the cabin.
According to Essex Police, the incident was "not believed to be a hijack situation or terror matter."
Passenger Jonathan Zulberg informed the Daily Mail that the flight was delayed by 40 minutes in Kaunas, pointing out that he "was pretty surprised the plane was allowed to take off" in the first place.
"Apparently the threat was made while we were still in Kaunas," added Zulberg, citing a flight attendant.
Images posted to Twitter Wednesday morning show passengers evacuating onto the tarmac.
Flights at Stansted Airport were held for about10 minutes around 9 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) Wednesday before eventually resuming.
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"Flights were briefly held while RAF Typhoons escorted the plane in. All flights are now operating as normal. It was literally a momentary pause," an airport spokesman confirmed.
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