A Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York is being diverted to Canada under fighter escort after conflicting signals about a possible hijacking.
A US Homeland Security official said Virgin Flight 45 was diverted over the Atlantic Ocean after the airplane emitted a signal indicating a possible hijacking.
The Canadian Air Force scrambled two CF-18 fighters from Quebec to intercept the flight and made visual contact with the pilots and escorted the plane to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it landed about 4 pm (Irish time).
The A340-600 Airbus had 273 passengers and 16 crew aboard.
The Homeland Security official said the airline was diverted to Canada out of “an abundance of caution” even though officials later realised the signal was likely to be a false alarm.
The airline said the signal was sent erroneously. “Virgin Atlantic's flight operations department is in contact with the flight crew on the aircraft and they have confirmed that this is a false alarm,” the airline said in a statement.
“Virgin Atlantic is investigating the technical reason for this,” it said.
The plane was being checked before being allowed to continue on to New York.