A Delhi-bound American Airlines flight from New York was diverted to Rome following a “bomb scare” on Sunday afternoon (local time). Two Euro fighter jets of the Italian Air Force escorted the aircraft back to safety. Visuals released by the Italian Air Force show fighter jets on both sides of the commercial aircraft, guarding it to Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
The Italian Air Force shared the visuals on social media with a caption, “#Scramble : in the afternoon two #Eurofighter of #AeronauticaMilitare took off on alert to identify and escort a commercial aircraft headed to Delhi which had reversed course towards Fiumicino airport (RM) due to a report of a presumed explosive device on board.”
#Scramble: nel pomeriggio due #Eurofighter dell’#AeronauticaMilitare sono decollati su allarme per identificare e scortare un aereo di linea diretto a Delhi che aveva invertito rotta verso l’aeroporto di Fiumicino (RM) per una segnalazione di un presunto ordigno esplosivo a bordo pic.twitter.com/qocq43lC6H
— Aeronautica Militare (@ItalianAirForce) February 23, 2025
“They asked us to sit down and not to roam around while the fighter jets were near us,” recalled Mahesh Kumar, an IT consultant aboard the flight, as per news agency AFP.
American Airlines flight AA292 took off from New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport on Saturday (February 22) at around 8.11 pm (local time), according to the flight tracker FlightAware. It turned around while flying over the Caspian Sea.
Around three hours before landing in Delhi, the pilot announced the diversion to Rome due to “security reasons”, said Mr Kumar. “Everyone was afraid. Everyone was staying quiet and obeying the orders,” Mr Kumar told AFP.
199 passengers and crew were on board the flight enroute to Delhi.
The US-based carrier didn’t share details on the nature of what it called a “possible security concern”. However, Italy’s ANSA news agency said that the diversion was caused by an “alleged bomb threat”.
Yash Raj, another passenger described the event as “horror-comedy”.
Life keeps giving me these little horror-comedies. Was on American Airlines AA292 😂 pic.twitter.com/Yq8keaEd3C
— Yash Raj (@yraj__) February 23, 2025
He later thanked the cabin crew for handling the situation well. “Also, we have safely deboarded the aircraft. Huge credit to the cabin crew for handling the situation so well. Everyone in the aircraft was calm,” he wrote.