The Royal Airforce (RAF) last week intercepted a Nairobi to Heathrow flight and diverted it to nearby London Stansted Airport over what was believed to be a “potential security threat”.
A London Stansted spokesperson said the Kenya Airways Boeing 787 "landed safely with Essex Police in attendance".
"The aircraft was escorted to a remote parking stand with normal flight operations continuing unaffected," she said. By Friday the incident had been “stood down” and the aircraft was handed back to the airport authorities, as is the international norm.
In a statement, Kenya Airways (KQ) said it had worked with the security authorities of the Government of Kenya and the United Kingdom to resolve the situation.
A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said: "RAF Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were launched as a precaution in the afternoon to investigate a civilian aircraft which was approaching the UK.
"The civilian aircraft remained in contact with air traffic controllers throughout, and was escorted to Stansted Airport where it landed safely and was handed over to civilian airport and security authorities at the airport.”
An airline spokesman said: "Kenya Airways confirmed that on Thursday 12 October 2023, at around 10:30, its headquarters received an alert of a potential security threat on board KQ100 en route from Nairobi to London Heathrow.
"KQ management, in conjunction with the security authorities of the Government of Kenya and the United Kingdom, carried out a thorough risk assessment of the threat.”
Essex Police confirmed that Stansted Airport was the designated airport to deal with any perceived air threats in the United Kingdom.
Neither the MoD nor Essex Police could confirm if passengers had remained on board.
llan Kilavuka, CEO of Kenya Airways, said: "There was suspicion of some of the people on board. But nothing to do with a bomb or anything like that.
"The precautions that we were taking was because that threat had been raised and so we just wanted to make sure that there was nothing untoward."
