BERLIN (AP) — Several flights across Europe On Tuesday, bomb threats turned out to be hoaxes but resulted in searches, diversions and, in one case, an escort by the Italian Air Force to land, officials said.
Affected airlines included Polish airline LOT, Norwegian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The incidents came a day after a Bulgaria-bound plane was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in flight. No one was hurt.
Matthew Borie of Osprey Flight Solutions, which advises airlines on theft threats, came up with several hypotheses for these still unexplained incidents: a single threat triggers copycat incidents; an individual or group makes multiple threats; or “hybrid warfare” operations carried out by state actors or their supporters.
Such threats are “not a new phenomenon” and come at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and signs of “disruption”, such as attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions in Europe and mysterious triggers for alert apps – even if authorities warned that hybrid threats abound.
The focus on Europe means “there could be a Russian angle,” said Borie, the company’s co-founder and chief intelligence officer. “We must, however, keep in mind that the Iranian hybrid war is also just as active in certain pockets of Europe. »
His message for travelers? “Don’t worry,” he said, pointing to the “coordinated response mechanisms” put in place by national authorities – including, at times, the deployment of NATO fighter jets to escort those planes.
Italy
A Ryanair flight from Lisbon landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Tuesday morning after receiving an email reporting a bomb on board, according to information provided by a Fiumicino official with knowledge of the events.
Police bomb disposal experts carried out security checks of passengers, crew and baggage and found no explosives.
A bomb threat was also reported on another Ryanair flight to Rome from Dublin, with no explosives found, the official said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The Italian Air Force has confirmed it dispatched two Air Force Eurofighters to “intercept and escort” a plane bound for Rome. It said it responded immediately “following a report of an alleged threat on board a civilian aircraft flying from Dublin to Rome Fiumicino”.
Poland
Meanwhile, in Poland, a morning flight by Polish airline LOT from London’s Heathrow Airport to Warsaw’s main Chopin Airport was diverted to nearby Modlin Airport after a bomb threat, Polish news agency PAP reported. Modlin Airport has been temporarily closed.
LOT said “nothing was found on the plane” after a search of the plane in Modlin. Airport officials said normal airport operations had resumed. They did not provide further details on the nature of the threats.
Chopin Airport also received information about a potentially dangerous object aboard a Norwegian Airlines, or SAS, flight from Copenhagen, PAP reported. The airport communications office told the news agency that standard security procedures were immediately implemented and one of the airport’s runways was closed.
“The passengers disembarked, the plane landed normally; it was not an emergency landing,” SAS spokesperson Alexandra Lindgren Kaoukji told PAP. She said the matter had been taken to Polish police.
Spain
Spanish authorities on Tuesday ruled out the presence of explosives on a Ryanair plane from Manchester which landed at Murcia airport in southern Spain following a bomb threat.
The passengers and crew passed a security check and the plane was inspected, Francisco Lucas, Spanish government delegate for the Murcia region, said on X. The flight had 121 people on board, including crew.
Bulgaria
Bulgarian authorities found no traces of explosives on two planes at Sofia International Airport that both received bomb threats on Tuesday while en route, Bulgarian Transport Minister Georgi Peev said on Tuesday, according to the official BTA news agency.
The two planes, arriving from Bergamo, Italy, and Dublin, Ireland, were inspected by officers from the Specialized Counter-Terrorism Unit after landing in Sofia. Neither were diverted due to the bomb threats.
Peev said the first information about the existence of one of the bomb threats “was based on a report from the pilot.”
“The pilot received information through his own channels – from the airline – that such a threat existed,” Peev said, adding that Bulgarian air traffic control then followed a protocol for such threats and the plane landed safely in Sofia.
Hungary
The bomb threats came a day after a Wizz Air flight from Luton Airport, near London, was forced to divert to Hungary after a bomb threat was received while the plane was in flight.
Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said on Facebook on Monday that a Hungarian Air Force Gripen fighter jet was dispatched to intercept the Wizz Air flight and safely escorted it to Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc International Airport.
Authorities found no threats on board the plane after conducting an inspection of the plane and its passengers, Wizz Air told state news agency MTI.
On Tuesday, acting secretary general of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry Lyubomir Nikolov told reporters that authorities were still trying to identify the author of the threat.
Last month, a flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an emergency landing in Bulgaria following a bomb threat.
Greece
Greek Authorities were investigating a bomb threat against a Panama-flagged, Israeli-run cruise ship in the port on the Aegean island of Syros.
No suspicious objects were found Tuesday during an initial search of the cruise ship, the Crown Iris, by coast guard officers accompanied by a sniffer dog and a diver, and a specialized diving unit was en route to carry out additional checks, the coast guard said.
The ship, which was due to sail to Haifa in Israel with 940 passengers and 597 crew members on board, was being evacuated as a precaution, the coast guard added.
The presence of the Crown Iris in Greek ports has triggered protests in the past, mainly from activists opposed to the war in Gaza.
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Biller reported from Rome. Associated Press journalists Elena Becatoros in Athens, Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
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