As the plane flew over French airspace, the flight was intercepted by RAF Typhoon fighter jets as a precaution, according to RAF Coningsby.
Despite the fact that armed Essex police surrounded the aircraft, the rest of the airport continued to operate under normal conditions. The aircraft was then escorted to a remote parking area. According to passengers on social media, the captain of the flight made no announcements.
In an X feed, Kenya Airways issued the following position statement with update 2 regarding KQ100 from Nairobi to London Heathrow on October 12, 2023:
Further to our Position statement on a security incident resulting in the diversion of KQ100 from Nairobi to London to Stansted Airport London, Kenya Airways (KQ) wishes to state as follows:
We received a security alert on the 12th of October 2023 at approximately 10:30 am from the UK Security agencies.
This threat has since been established to have low credibility.
We immediately alerted the relevant KQ Operations team including the crew onboard.
The crew then took the necessary security measures as per our operating manuals.
No security incident occurred during or after the flight.
The aircraft landed safely at London Stansted Airport, the incident has been stood down, and the airport is open and operating as normal.
The security agencies cleared the aircraft and will be departing for London Heathrow to resume normal operations.
We sincerely regret the inconvenience to our passengers and crew and would like to thank them for their patience.
We would also like to thank our crew for their professionalism during this incident.
We will provide any necessary counseling support and will communicate directly to our passengers on how they receive it.
