American Airlines, which operates a daily flight between New York JFK and New Delhi, experienced a security threat yesterday on the flight. As a result, the airline diverted the flight to Rome rather than continuing it to Delhi.

American Airlines 292 Diverted to Rome

AA292, a flight operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner registered N840AN, carrying up to 285 passengers, took off from New York JFK on Saturday night (February 22, 2025). It was bound for Delhi on what should have been a straightforward 14-hour hop.

However, over Turkmenistan, the plot twist happened: a security threat forced the crew to make a mid-air U-turn, and the plane went all the way back to Rome, Italy, for an unscheduled pit stop.

FlightRadar24’s tracking painted this picture: after cruising across the Atlantic, slicing through Europe, and almost flying over to the last leg, the Dreamliner did an about-face at Turkmenistan and backtracked toward Rome. The choice of Rome FCO indicated that the threat was not as severe, which is why American Airlines sent over the plane to Rome, where there is a setup for the airline with all sorts of infrastructure, rather than landing it somewhere where the airline will have no infrastructure and will have to handle the situation with no boots on the ground.

The plane was escorted by Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets when it came into Rome.

The Italian Airforce released some cool pictures about the escort mission on their Twitter handle.

The “threat” turned out to be a hoax, and this is what American Airlines said in a statement,

American Airlines flight 292, with service from New York (JFK) to Delhi (DEL), diverted to Rome (FCO) due to a possible security concern. The flight landed safely at FCO, and law enforcement inspected and cleared the aircraft to re-depart. Safety and security are our top priorities and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.

The possible issue was determined to be non-credible, but per DEL Airport protocol, an inspection was required before landing at DEL. The flight stayed in FCO overnight to allow for required crew rest before continuing to DEL as soon as possible tomorrow. No status is posted for the flight at the moment.

 

Bottomline

American Airlines witnessed a diversion from New York JFK to Delhi into Rome for AA292, which took off on February 22, 2025. The security threat turned out to be a hoax, but the airline took all precautions regardless. The aircraft was escorted by Italian Eurofighter jets, and the aircraft will depart Rome when they have the crew ready for the flight to Delhi.

What do you think of this incident and the reaction from American Airlines?

---

Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.