An Emirates flight to New York’s Newark Airport was forced to return to Athens last Thursday after reports of an alleged “security threat” on board the plane and reports leaked to local media that one of the passengers could be a CIA-wanted terrorist.
Emirates flight EK209 took off from Athens 12 minutes late at 17:32 on Thursday, November 10, and was flying over Sardinia when it suddenly slowed down and completely turned around to head back to Greece.
It was also strange that the Boeing 777-300 did not follow the shortest route back to Athens, but instead turned around the coast of Italy and Sicily to avoid flying over land. The plane performed a similar maneuver approaching Greece and headed inland only on its final approach to Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos Airport.
As it turned out later, France and Italy denied the Emirates pilots permission for an emergency landing in their air harbors. Nevertheless, the crew kept control of the plane all the time, although two Greek Air Force F-16 fighters were already on the sides of it.
According to local media, intelligence agencies received information that the suspected terrorist may have been a passenger on one of two Emirates flights – one en route from Athens to Dubai and was stopped before departure. In contrast, EK209 had already taken off when security services were alerted.
When Boeing landed in the Greek capital, passengers were “unloaded” onto buses, and Emirates was forced to postpone the flight for the next day.
How the incident ended, and whether anyone was taken into custody, the police do not report.