A SOUTHWEST Airlines flight has been diverted and forced to do an emergency landing after a mid-air security threat.
Flight 2094 from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale was forced to cut the journey short and land at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 9:06pm on Friday night.
While thousands of feet in the air, a security threat was reported which saw tactical cops storm the aircraft upon landing and detain a passenger.
A video allegedly taken on board the flight showed the moment a man was dragged off the flight by the Atlanta Police Department.
The clip shared on X showed terrified passengers with their hands raised above their heads as cops cuffed a passenger and took him off the aircraft.
The text on the clip claimed that there had been a bomb threat but this has not been commented on by the airline or police.
In a statement, Southwest said the diversion came due to a “possible security matter.”
“We appreciate the professionalism of our flight crew and sincerely apologize to our customers for the significant delay,” the spokesperson said.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees.”
The Atlanta Police Department confirmed it worked with federal partners to attend to “last night’s incident” at the airport.
The nature of the security threat and if the passenger removed will face any charges remains unclear.
It is not known if the passenger is still in police detention.
Officials have not commented if any dangerous items were found onboard.
After the police activity, all passengers boarded another plane and continued their journey to Fort Lauderdale where they arrived safely just before 3:30am.
The airline has apologized to all affected passengers.
It comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains on shutdown over funding disagreements which former Security Secretary Kristi Noem said is “endangering national security.”
The DHS has been shut down since February 14 which Noem said has negatively impacted and put huge pressure on TSA and border patrol.
In addition to this, Republicans have warned that the country is under an increased domestic terror threat due to the recent US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“Now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak,” Speaker Mike Johnson, warned on Wednesday as he discussed the continued shutdown.
“Senate needs to fund the TSA. They’ve had them the Coast Guard, FEMA and Cybersecurity CISA on shut down for 3 weeks. We will surely see more of this,” one viewer of the footage from the diverted aircraft said.
“Unfortunately there’s going to be a lot more of this coming,” another said.