United Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to New York diverted ‘after declaring emergency’

United Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to New York diverted ‘after declaring emergency’ The airline has confirmed that the plane landed 'to address an odor in the cabin' after looping around mid-flight and appearing to change its trajectory to Athens International Airport A flight from Israel to New York has been diverted mid-flight to Greece to 'address an odor in the cabin'. The United Airlines flight heading from Tel Aviv to Newark Liberty International Airport, which serves New York, has been diverted to Athens in the early hours of Monday morning local time. Flight UA168 has landed at Athens International Airport after looping around mid-flight and appearing to change its trajectory to the Greek airport. United Airlines has shared a statement with the Mirror, saying: "United flight 168 from Tel Aviv to Newark diverted to Athens and landed safely to address an odor in the cabin. Passengers deplaned normally, and we are arranging for a different aircraft to take them to Newark." It has not been confirmed exactly what the odor in the cabin was. There were 230 passengers and 13 crew members on board. There were unconfirmed reports that the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner traveling from Tel Aviv to Newark Airport, transmitted emergency code 7700 - the international aviation emergency signal, used when an aircraft requires priority assistance from air traffic control. The diversion comes after a string of hoax threats have caused chaos at airports across Europe in the last week. On Tuesday, seven flights across Europe - two of which had departed from the UK - were subjected to bomb threats. Two days later, on Thursday, hoax bomb threats targeted at least 27 fights in Europe. Fighter jets were scrambled to escort an Aer Lingus aircraft over France, a Finnair plane over Italy, and three Ryanair flights over Bulgaria. The following day, on Friday, flights to and from countries including the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Italy and Romania were affected by similar threats. Two flights departing from and arriving in Rome were targeted. Prague Airport also confirmed it received repeated threats on planes travelling to and from the airport. Danish police too said they are investigating threats directed towards air traffic at Copenhagen Airport. Nine of the affected flights in total were either heading to or departing from Václav Havel Airport in Prague, an airport spokesperson said. The Mirror's map shows all the flights disrupted on Thursday. United Airlines have been contacted for further information on the incident.