Authorities across Europe scrambled to respond Thursday after a string of bomb threats forced several commercial flights into emergency landings, the latest in a week of hoax warnings disrupting air travel on the continent.
Finnair Flight 1761, traveling from Helsinki to Rome, was targeted by a bomb threat but landed normally in the Italian capital. A search of the aircraft turned up nothing unusual, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported.
Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, were also forced into emergency landings over bomb threats. One flight from Copenhagen and another from Madrid both landed safely at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, according to airport officials. A third flight, departing London’s Stansted Airport, was diverted and landed safely instead at the airport in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.
In France, an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in Evreux, in the Normandy region, after a bomb threat was called in. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office confirmed the plane landed safely with all 151 passengers and six crew members unharmed. Military bomb defusal teams were examining the aircraft, and the prime minister’s office said it was monitoring the situation in real time, with no further details released.
Flight tracking data showed the Dublin-Rome plane had been approaching Paris when it abruptly changed course, circling several times before heading toward Evreux.
Part of a Broader Pattern
The Thursday incidents followed several days of similar hoax threats hitting carriers including Poland’s LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair, prompting searches, diversions, and in one instance an escort by the Italian air force until the plane landed safely. A day earlier, a flight headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after a similar threat was phoned in mid-flight. No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
While hoax bomb threats against airlines are not new, officials note they are occurring against a backdrop of heightened tension across Europe, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions into European airspace, and unexplained triggering of emergency alert apps. Authorities have warned that such incidents fit a pattern of so-called hybrid threats facing the continent.
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