MILAN — Bomb threats targeted more than a dozen flights in Europe on Thursday, in some cases leading to a series of emergency landings and military escorts, authorities said. No dangerous or suspicious materials were found in what a British official called “malicious” hoaxes.
Several similar threats planes targeted earlier this weekcausing searches and diversions. Europe has seen many other disruptions recently, such as attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions and mysterious triggers for alert apps.
Although false bomb threats are relatively common, it is unusual to see so many in a single day. They come at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and warnings from officials that Russia could intensify so-called hybrid threats in Europe.
It’s unclear whether this week’s threats were related, who sent them or what they hoped to achieve.
An email containing a threat against Rome-bound planes was sent on behalf of a group that describes itself as anti-feminist, according to a copy provided by an airport official and reviewed by The Associated Press. An official at another European airport said the threat they received also came from a group calling itself anti-feminist and used similar language. It was unclear whether the same group sent both threats. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.
The travelers weren’t too afraid
At Rome airport, travelers whose flights were not affected seemed to take the threats in stride.
“For now, I am no longer afraid of being in an airport or boarding a plane,” said Alessia Strada, a 19-year-old Italian returning from Kenya. “This idea I have about traveling to Europe will probably change in the near future, but let’s see how it goes.”
Alex Langenkamper, a 38-year-old German on his way to Munich, said “crazy people” exist and will exist in the future.
Meanwhile, Michael Romano, a 54-year-old traveler on his way to Colombia, said he was concerned that the world was moving toward war.
“These things never happened here in Europe,” he said. “This is all new, so it’s a little scary.”
Stress tests for governments and rising costs
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said the threats were a “stress test” of how European governments and airport officials are responding and whether their responses are coordinated.
The idea behind these threats “appears to be to sow chaos and uncertainty over the reliability of air traffic across Europe” and could have “cascading effects” – such as economic damage and costs associated with inspecting, investigating and cleaning planes.
Joji Waites, who heads flight safety at the British Airline Pilots’ Association, said the industry has “proven mechanisms” in place to deal with such threats, including a team of assessors to assess the threat level in a red-amber-green color coding system, rapid notification of flight crews and evacuation of grounded aircraft.
Each flight disruption could cost airlines as much as $250,000, equivalent to the potential costs of dealing with an unruly passenger, said Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation safety at Coventry University in England.
“And that’s because you might end up with an off-hours crew. You might need a replacement crew. You have passengers who miss their connection,” Baum said. “This throws everything out of sync for the rest of the day for the airline in question.”
Military escorts also cost money, which would be borne by governments rather than airlines, he added.
Authorities denounce hoaxes
British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told British TV channels that flights across Europe had been hit by “malicious hoax threats”.
European Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas told reporters in Dublin that it was “too early to draw conclusions about the link between the reported incidents.”
“National investigations are still ongoing,” he said, adding that a European mechanism for sharing information on aviation security had been activated.
French air base on alert
An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in France after receiving a threat, the office of French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said. The plane landed safely at the Evreux base, which was on high alert, and military bomb disposal teams were examining the plane, the office said.
Lecornu ordered military aircraft to intercept the plane because the pilot “did not cooperate as expected with authorities,” his office said. He declined to comment further.
Hours after landing, the plane was parked on the tarmac with a Red Cross vehicle nearby while explosives experts accompanied by dogs examined it.
An investigation was opened by the French aviation security authorities. Regional prosecutor Rémi Coutin said in a statement that the pilot and co-pilot had been questioned about what happened.
Italian and Croatian air force planes escort Finnair flight
Italian Air Force fighter jets escorted a Finnair flight that took off from Helsinki to Rome after a threat was received by email, the Air Force said in a statement. The Croatian Defense Ministry said one of its fighter jets first intercepted the commercial plane in Croatian airspace before handing it over to the Italians.
Finnair said two of its flights, including the one that received the military escort and landed safely in Rome, “faced unfounded bomb threats.” The other flight, operated by Jettime from Helsinki to Vienna, landed safely at its destination and is expected to return to service following an inspection, Finnair said.
Meanwhile, three Ryanair flights to Sofia, Bulgaria, also received military escorts and made emergency landings after bomb threats, officials said. Two of the flights – one from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other from Madrid – landed safely in Sofia, airport officials told reporters. The third, from London, was diverted and landed safely in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.
Hoaxes sparked similar searches earlier this week
Several flights across Europe received bomb threats earlier this week, officials said.
The flights included those operated by Polish airline LOT, Norwegian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The hoax threats came after a Bulgaria-bound plane was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in flight. No one was hurt.
Many other flights were disrupted on Thursday. Among these incidents:
— Czech police say searches of four planes that landed in Prague after being the target of bomb threats turned up nothing. They did not give details about the origin of the thefts and said they had taken precautions even though they did not find the threats credible.
— A BEAUCOUP Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed at its destination, where inspections found no dangerous or suspicious items, the airline said.
— A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest landed safely in the Romanian capital following a bomb threat, airport spokesman Teo Postelnicu said. The checks yielded no results.
— A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna after Polish authorities received a threatening email, said Stefan Loidl, a police spokesman for the Lower Austrian province. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw. He added that there was also an abstract threat to Vienna airport regarding four other flights, which he declined to identify, but that operations had not been disrupted.
– Air Serbia said a flight from Belgrade to Bucharest received a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax. The plane landed in Bucharest, underwent checks and resumed operations.
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Charlton reported from Paris and Biller from Rome. Associated Press writers from across Europe contributed to this report.
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