‘Bomb Will Detonate At 10,000 Feet’ – Fighter Jets Scramble As American Airlines 787 Makes 2,000-Mile Emergency U-Turn To Rome

by Gary Leff

Earlier I wrote about fighter jets scrambling as the American Airlines flight from New York JFK to Delhi diverted over two thousand miles back to Rome. It was closer to its destination than to its chosen diversion point. There was a reported bomb threat against the aircraft.

Here are photos of the American Airlines 787-9 being shadowed by what appear to be Eurofighter Typhoons.

It turns out that the threat was that a bomb would detonate as the aircraft descended to 10,000 feet on arrival at Delhi, as reported by aviation watchdog JonNYC.

Here are passengers deplaning the aircraft via air stairs on arrival in Rome. The aircraft had spent as much time in the air to get to Rome as it’s scheduled for all the way to Delhi.

The aircraft was inspected on arrival. Passengers and crew will spend the night in Rome, to meet required crew rest, before continuing their journey to Delhi on Monday.

There have been a large number of bomb hoaxes against aircraft flying to India, with more than 1,000 recorded against both domestic and international flights in 2024 – a 10x increase over the previous year.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  3. I’ve long wondered why there aren’t more threats in general. With sufficient effort it seems that any group could create utter chaos in the transportation industry and drive every government and traveler nuts. The penalties would be extremely harsh, as well they should be, but that wouldn’t stop some of these maniacs. Perhaps there are far more than we hear about, but that doesn’t change the serious response each one needs.

  4. I’m sure there are plenty more we don’t heat about. Intelligence & law enforcement who what’s credible and what’s a drunken threat at 330am .The cost and complication of this threat says it had credibility.

  5. This is not great. We cannot take safety for granted. Information is a weapon as much as actual violence these days.

  6. I have some Hyatt guest of honor and Suite upgrades awards expiring, how do i give them to someone who can use them?

  8. Why divert 2000 miles back to FCO? Why didn’t they divert to the nearest airport? What makes Fiumicino the ideal diversion airport?

  9. @Greg — Ah, c’mon man. You already know why. They scramble fighter jets to investigate the incident, for deterrence, etc. And no, the Europeans weren’t going to harm innocent civilians–they aren’t Russians, after all (three years today, for those who remember).

    @Ron — Simple answer: The cacio e pepe is just that good. Pasta, my friend. That is why. Bah!

    @Ber — Sir, this is a Wendy’s. What are you doing asking about Hyatt on a totally unrelated post. Have you tried calling Hyatt and asking them about your question? Oh, you haven’t? Please, continue spamming us here–it brings me great joy. Thank you.

  10. A lot of the bomb threats for Indian flights are there because someone wants to delay a flight for personal reasons unrelated to any desire, capability or opportunity to set off a bomb on a scheduled common carrier flight.

    Non-refundable ticket? Cancelled/very delayed flight makes it refundable.

    Don’t want the a relative or former flame or former friend to fly on time (if at all)? This is one way it has been done repeatedly.

    Maybe this one was done because some Modi-lovers are upset at Trump over tariff threats, deportation of Indians in chains/cuffs after they supported Trump? Who knows.

  11. Many years ago there was a movie made that had a bomb threat that the plane would blow up when going below 5,280 ft. I think it was based on fact.

    They defeated the threat by landing at Stapleton. And found the bomb in one of the checked bags.

    Anyone remember that movie?

  12. There have been a great many announced threats with no actual bombs, and a few actual bombs without any announcement of a threat until after detonation . . . which makes perfect sense since there is very little advantage to anybody who has gone through the trouble to have successfully placed a bomb on a plane to announce that they’ve done so.

    Giving any moron capable of making an empty threat the power to force a plane to land gives perverse incentives for morons to keep making threats.

  13. @AlanZ — So basically, ‘Speed’–but in the air. I believe you are referring to ‘The Doomsday Flight’, a television film from the 1960s. Some claim that fictional film inspired some very real copy-cat incidents, such as the 1971 Qantas hoax–the perpetrator there chose ‘20,000’ feet as the minimum limit. There’s an Australian film, ‘Call Me Mr Brown,’ which depicts the incident. Yeah, these are pretty eclectic references, but if you’re into aviation like many of us here, you may find some who are in-the-know.

  14. @GUWonder — That’s an interesting perspective. If only we had better consumer protections in the US, then maybe some would not feel the need to go to such extreme measures (if that is the case). For instance, had this been a flight covered by the EU/UK 261 or Canada’s APPR, then the passengers would have had more options for cancelations, rebooking, refunds, and even compensation by the airline. Instead, we are so distracted and divided by 24/7 pro-business propaganda, that we in the US will likely never see better treatment for ourselves as consumers. Shame on us.

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