LONDON — A wave of bomb threats against airliners caused chaos in Europe’s skies and airports on Thursday, the latest such incident this week that prompted emergency landings and runway safety checks.
No explosives have been found so far, and it is unclear who or what is behind the security threats against at least 14 airliners. But these threats have caused disruptions in European airspace and at some of its busiest airports.
One of the first reports involved Aer Lingus flight EI402 from Dublin to Rome, which changed course near Paris and diverted to a French air base, the airline said. There, all 151 passengers and six crew members were evacuated while a bomb squad inspected the plane, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said in a statement.
Confirmed flights threatened Thursday
- Aer Lingus EI402 from Dublin to Rome — received a bomb threat over France, made an emergency landing at an air base and was inspected by a bomb squad, according to the airline and French officials.
- Finnair AY1761 from Helsinki to Rome Fiumicino — escorted to Rome by Italian Air Force planes, the bomb squad’s search found no explosives, the airline said.
- Finnair AY1471 from Helsinki to Vienna — also received a bomb threat and no explosives were found either, according to the airline.
- LOT Polish Airlines LO235 from Warsaw to Brussels — crew carried out in-flight checks after receiving threat, “additional check” once in Brussels found no “suspicious objects”, airline said.
- LOT Polish Airlines LO331 from Warsaw to Paris — “affected by potential threat,” but searches of passengers and baggage found nothing, Polish officials said.
- Ryanair FR3606 from Copenhagen to Sofia and Ryanair FR6410 from Madrid to Sofia — both landed normally following a bomb threat, no explosives found, according to the Bulgarian Transport Ministry.
- Ryanair FR1730 from London Stansted to Sofia — also received a bomb threat and diverted to Plovdiv, the Bulgarian Transport Ministry said.
- Wizz Air WMT3064 from Milan to Bucharest — the airport said it was informed of the bomb threat when the flight arrived, but bomb squads found nothing.
- Czech police say four unidentified flights to Prague have also received threats.
From there, reports of threats in European skies came in at a dizzying pace, triggering searches by cabin crew and then airport security once on the ground.
Security operations were launched at airports in Prague, Copenhagen and Warsaw, with passengers finally seeing army and police sniffer dogs patrolling the tarmac.
“It is too early to draw conclusions about whether the reported incidents are linked,” Apostolos Tzitzikostas, EU commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism, said at a news conference in Brussels, adding that “we do not yet know whether this is a cyberattack.”
A Finnair flight from Helsinki was escorted by Italian air force planes to Rome’s Fiumicino airport “following anonymous reports of a suspected bomb threat”, according to a spokesperson for the city’s airport authority. Mine clearance experts found nothing.
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