A Turkish Airlines (THY) flight from Houston, Texas to Istanbul was diverted to Ireland's Shannon Airport on Sunday after a paper towel with a note simply reading "bomb" was found in the airplane's lavatory.

The plane was headed to Istanbul with an undisclosed number of passengers when flight attendants found the note while it was flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Acting in line with flight procedures, pilots made the emergency landing at Shannon Airport, the nearest airport.

Passengers were evacuated while security personnel combed the airplane for potential explosive devices. The plane was scheduled to resume its flight to Istanbul as the news went to print if a sweep does not find any security breach aboard, Turkish media reported.

The national carrier THY is frequently subjected to false bomb threats. Last year, a foreigner and a flight attendant were detained in two separate incidents in which handwritten notes that said "bomb" were found aboard international flights. At least four international flights were forced to make emergency landings in 2015 due to bomb hoaxes.