Several flights across Europe received alleged bomb threats on Tuesday that officials said were hoaxes. The warnings prompted searches, diversions and, in one case, an escort by the Italian Air Force until landing. No one was injured. Airlines affected included Polish carrier LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair.
In Poland, a morning LOT flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin was diverted to the capital’s Modlin airport after a bomb threat, the Polish press agency PAP reported. Modlin was closed temporarily. LOT later said the search of the aircraft had been completed and that “nothing was found on the aircraft.” Passengers were undergoing border control and, after passing through, were to be taken to Chopin by coach. Modlin later said there was no real threat and that normal operations had resumed.
A day earlier, a Wizz Air flight that left Luton, near London, was diverted to Hungary after a bomb threat received in the air. Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said on Facebook that a Gripen fighter from the Hungarian Air Force was scrambled and escorted the aircraft to Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest. Wizz Air told the state news agency MTI that an inspection of the plane and its passengers found no threat.
In Spain, officials ruled out explosives on a Ryanair aircraft from Manchester that landed at Murcia after a bomb threat. Passengers and crew went through a security check and the aircraft was inspected, Francisco Lucas, the Spanish government’s delegate in Murcia, said on X. He said 121 people, including crew, were on board.
Elsewhere, a Ryanair flight from Lisbon landed at Rome Fiumicino on Tuesday morning after an email reported a bomb on board, according to a Fiumicino official. Police bomb-disposal experts checked passengers, crew and baggage and found no explosives. Another email reported a bomb on a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Rome. Italy’s air force escorted that aircraft to Fiumicino, and the same checks found no explosives, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Chopin Airport also received information about a potentially dangerous item on an SAS flight from Copenhagen, PAP reported. Piotr Rudzki, acting director of the Warsaw airport’s communications office, said standard safety procedures were applied and one runway was closed. SAS spokeswoman Alexandra Lindgren Kaokju told PAP: “The passengers disembarked, the plane landed normally; it was not an emergency landing.” She said the airline was focusing on care for passengers and crew and that the matter had been referred to the Polish police.
In Bulgaria, Transportation Minister Georgi Peev said authorities found no signs of explosives on two aircraft at Sofia that had received bomb threats while en route from Bergamo and Dublin. Neither was diverted. Officers of the Specialized Counter-Terrorism Unit inspected them after landing. Peev said the initial information on one threat “was based on a report from the pilot,” who had been told by the airline, and that Bulgarian air traffic control then followed its protocol and the aircraft landed safely in Sofia. Acting Interior Ministry Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov said authorities were still trying to identify the sender of the threat. A day earlier, a plane headed for Bulgaria had been diverted to Hungary after a similar warning in the air. Last month, a flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an emergency landing in Bulgaria after a bomb threat.