Flights grounded at Ronald Reagan airport after United Airlines bomb threat

Flights at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) were grounded on Tuesday after a bomb threat was made. An unknown person called the ATC tower at DCA and said that United Airlines Flight 512, a Boeing 737 Max 8 carrying 89 passengers and 6 crew members, had a bomb onboard. The caller stated that it would go off upon landing unless they were paid $500,000 in cryptocurrency, reported The Washington Post. A ground stop was issued at 11:18 a.m. "We have an unconfirmed bomb report ... I mean, I can confirm someone called. Someone called and said there was a bomb on 512, they said if it landed, it would explode -- well, it landed," an air traffic controller said in LiveATC audio from around 11:37 a.m., according to WUSA9 News. The aircraft was able to safely land and was directed to a remote area of the airfield, away from the terminal. The passengers were escorted off and were shuttled to the terminal as flights heading to DCA were diverted to other airports. According to the FBI Washington Field Office, no hazards were found on the flight. The ground stop was scheduled until 1:30 p.m., but a ground delay was issued at 1 p.m. with an average delay of 51 minutes until 11 p.m. Over 120 flights were delayed on Tuesday, but operations should have returned to normal. RELATED STORIES:UPS MD-11 cargo freighter crashes south of Louisville airport United Airlines grounds all mainline flights after nationwide tech outageAlaska Airlines flights grounded due to tech outage in data center