Bomb threats disrupt multiple flights across Europe
At least 15 services including one from UK involved
Multiple flights across Europe were disrupted by bomb threats on Thursday for the second time in two days, which UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has described as a “malicious hoax”.
They include a Ryanair service between London and Sofia in Bulgaria which was diverted to Plovdiv in the country.
Another was an Aer Lingus Airbus A320 en route between Dublin for Rome which issued an emergency alert and was diverted to land at Evreux air base in northern France.
Some 13 other flights affected were reported to be between Ireland, Italy, Finland, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark and Spain.
Edinburgh, by far the busiest airport in Scotland, reported no disruption.
A statement from the French Prime Minister’s Office about the Aer Lingus flight said: “The 151 passengers and six crew members were brought to safety and the bomb disposal teams intervened.”
Aer Lingus said: “Aer Lingus flight EI402 from Dublin to Rome diverted to Normandy this morning as a security precaution.
“The flight landed safely and Aer Lingus will work to reaccommodate customers to their final destination as soon as possible.”
The BBC reported that Rome airport authorities said the threat against two inbound flights came from the "Fighters of the Male State" which claimed to be targeting a "feminist regime" and wanting to "make our mark on history".
They threatened to "turn the skies red" with explosions.
The BBC said Finnish airline Finnair reported a bomb threat against one of its flights between Helsinki to Rome, which was escorted by air force jets and landed as scheduled.
The alert comes two days after similar threats to some seven flights across Europe but no devices were found.
In Bucharest, the BBC reported that nearly 200 passengers were evacuated from a Wizz Air flight after arriving from Milan.
It said a specialist explosives disposal team from Romania’s Intelligence Service (SRI) was inspecting the aircraft.
But it said other flights at the airport were operating normally.
The BBC said police in the Czech Republic were "preparing for landing" of four flights heading to Prague, after "receiving a threat regarding the placement of an improvised explosive device".
"We assess the relevance of the threats as low," Czech police write on X, who say "pyrotechnic inspections will be conducted on all aircraft" after landing.
The force later said no explosives were found.
The BBC reported that the Ministry of Transport in Bulgaria said bomb threats were made against three flights to Sofia, with the others, also Ryanair, from Copenhagen and Madrid.
Wizz Air said a flight from Milan to Warsaw was diverted to Vienna.
The other flights affected were operated by Aegean and LOT.
Ms Alexander there were “established processes for dealing with hoax and malicious threats, and that's what these threats have been"
She said the [UK] government "take these threats seriously, but we understand these have been malicious hoax threats".
Among flights affected on Tuesday, four Ryanair aircraft were searched, including two that departed from Dublin airport, following potential bomb threats.
Two Ryanair flights, one from Lisbon and one from Dublin, were searched in Rome’s Fiumicino airport after separate bomb alerts.
The airport confirmed that the flight travelling from Dublin was escorted by the Italian Air Force, after an anonymous tip off call on Tuesday morning warned of a potential bomb.