Seven bomb threats against European flights confirmed as false alarms
Seven Lights
Seven suspected bomb threats reported against passenger aircraft across Europe on Tuesday were all false alarms, authorities confirmed, in a day of diversions, air-force escorts and a briefly closed airport that prompted a fresh look at aviation security on the continent.
The incidents touched carriers in Poland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Ireland. A LOT Polish Airlines flight from London Heathrow bound for Warsaw’s Okęcie airport was diverted to the smaller Modlin airfield, forcing its temporary closure, while a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw landed as planned. A Ryanair service from Manchester to Murcia was searched, as were two Ryanair jets from Lisbon and Dublin at Rome’s Fiumicino airport; the Dublin flight was escorted by the Italian Air Force until it landed. A Wizz Air flight from Bergamo and a second Ryanair flight from Dublin were inspected on arrival in Sofia. Two of the seven flights had departed from British airports.
Bulgaria’s interior minister, Georgi Peev, confirmed the threats against the flights from Bergamo and Dublin. The border police said an email received at about 10:35 local time alleged “the presence of an improvised explosive device on a flight returning from Bergamo” and reported a similar threat against the aircraft arriving from Dublin. An operational headquarters of several institutions was convened, the police said.
The UK government described the incidents as “malicious hoax threats” and said it operated “one of the most robust aviation security systems in the world, with well-tested processes for dealing with any potential threats”. Aviation security expert Paul Mason said threats against passenger planes “don’t happen that frequently”, adding: “It sounds like they’ve been made in a credible manner across a broad range of airlines,” which suggested “a very deliberate act” rather than coincidental malicious calls.
Authorities from several countries will co-operate to assess whether the episodes formed a co-ordinated attempt to disrupt airspace, although officially no link has been established. Separately, an anonymous claim brought detection dogs and divers to the Panama-flagged cruise ship Crown Iris, docked at Syros in the Aegean. Initial checks of the hull found nothing and the ship was due to resume its journey.
Tuesday’s incidents followed a Monday scare in which a Wizz Air jet from London Luton made an emergency landing in Budapest under escort by a Hungarian fighter jet. The airline said security checks found nothing.