There were 227 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 777-300.
It is understood that the crew became aware of the bomb threat after a written note was discovered on board. The crew informed their operations centre who in turn alerted authorities in Ireland.
The pilot requested permission to divert and land at Shannon and was cleared to reroute to the mid west airport.
With the flight still almost two hours from Shannon, the airport’s emergency plan was put into action.
Units of the local authority fire service from Shannon and Ennis were sent to the airport as back up to the airport’s own fire and rescue service. Ambulances from Ennis and Limerick were also mobilised along with gardaí.
The Irish Coast Guard was also alerted to the incident and placed the RNLI lifeboat based at Kilrush on standby until the flight had safely crossed the west coast.
At around 10.20am Irish time, the crew made radio contact with controllers at the Irish Aviation Authority’s North Atlantic Communications Centre at Ballygirreen in Co Clare.
The crew issued a Pan-Pan distressed call and requested permission to dump fuel over the Atlantic to ensure they touched down within safe landing weight levels. The flight landed safely at around 11.02am.
After landing, the jet was directed to a remote taxiway where the passengers were disembarked via mobile stairs and taken to the terminal by bus.
As with previous similar incidents, the jet remained parked until its scheduled flight time had elapsed before authorities searched the aircraft for any evidence of explosives.
The note was also taken into evidence by gardaí and the handwriting was expected to be compared with samples taken from passengers.
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