Hoax bomb threats disrupt dozens of European flights over two days

Analysis

Multiple flights across Europe were diverted or escorted by fighter jets on Thursday due to bomb threats, authorities said, following a similar series of hoaxes earlier in the week. More than a dozen flights from cities including Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan and Warsaw were targeted, with most making emergency landings at alternate airports. Inspections by military and police bomb disposal teams have so far found no explosives or hazardous materials on any of the aircraft. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in Evreux, Normandy, the French prime minister's office said. All 151 passengers and six crew members were safe, and bomb defusal teams were examining the plane. Flight tracking data showed the aircraft turned sharply off its trajectory near Paris before heading to the base. "It added that it was following the situation in real time," the prime minister's office said.

Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, had to make emergency landings. Two flights, from Copenhagen and Madrid, landed safely at Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport, airport officials told reporters. The third Sofia-bound flight, from London's Stansted Airport, was diverted and landed safely at the airport in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said. A Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome landed normally at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport, escorted by Italian air force fighter jets, after a bomb threat was received, an airport official said.

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Authorities point to copycats or hybrid warfare

Matthew Borie of Osprey Flight Solutions, which advises airlines on flight threats, laid out several hypotheses for the as-yet unexplained incidents. He said a single threat could trigger copycat incidents, an individual or a group could be making multiple threats, or it could be operations of "hybrid warfare" by state actors or their supporters. "The focus on Europe means 'there could be a Russian angle,'" said Borie, the company's co-founder and chief intelligence officer. "We need to keep in mind, though, that Iranian hybrid warfare is just as active in certain pockets of Europe as well." His message for travelers was, "Don't be alarmed." He noted "coordinated response mechanisms" by national authorities, including, at times, the deployment of NATO fighter jets to escort such planes. Such threats were "not a new phenomenon" and come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and signs of "disruption," like attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions in Europe and mysterious triggers to alert apps, even as authorities have warned that hybrid threats abound.

The incidents on Thursday followed a wave of similar hoaxes earlier in the week. On Tuesday, a Ryanair flight from Lisbon landed in Rome's Fiumicino airport after an email reported a bomb on board, according to an airport official. Police bomb disposal experts carried out security checks and found no explosives. Another email reported a bomb on a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Rome, which was escorted to Fiumicino by Italy's air force. Again, no explosives were found.

Multiple airlines and countries affected

In Poland, a LOT flight from London's Heathrow to Warsaw was diverted to Modlin airport after a bomb threat, Polish press agency PAP reported. The airline later said the search was completed and "nothing was found on the aircraft." Chopin Airport in Warsaw also received information about a potentially dangerous item on board a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen, leading to the closure of a runway. "The passengers disembarked, the plane landed normally; it was not an emergency landing," SAS spokeswoman Alexandra Lindgren Kaokju told PAP.

Spanish officials ruled out the presence of explosives on a Ryanair plane from Manchester that landed in Murcia following a bomb threat. Passengers and crew went through a security check, and the aircraft was inspected, said Francisco Lucas, the Spanish government's delegate in the Murcia region. The flight had 121 people on board. In Bulgaria, authorities found no signs of explosives on two aircraft at Sofia International Airport that had received bomb threats while en route from Bergamo, Italy, and Dublin, Ireland, Bulgaria's Minister of Transportation Georgi Peev said.

Peev said the initial information on 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 that landed the aircraft safely. The threats came a day after a Wizz Air flight from London was diverted to Hungary, where a Hungarian Air Force Gripen fighter jet was scrambled to escort it to Budapest. Authorities found no threat aboard.

On Thursday, other disruptions included a LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels that landed at its destination, where inspections found nothing hazardous. A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest landed safely in Bucharest following a bomb threat, airport spokesman Teo Postelnicu said. A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna after Polish authorities received an abstract threat, said police spokesperson Stefan Loidl. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw. Czech police said searches of four planes that landed in Prague after being targeted by bomb threats were clear.

Polish authorities also checked a LOT flight that was about to depart from Warsaw to Paris on Thursday morning after a threat was reported at Warsaw's Chopin Airport, said airport spokesman Piotr Rudzki. No threat was ultimately identified, but one runway was temporarily closed during standard security procedures. On Tuesday, Bulgaria's acting Interior Ministry Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov told reporters that authorities were still trying to identify the sender of the earlier threats. Bomb threats against transportation targets are not uncommon. Nosy Mag reported in October that a man was accused of a terrorism-related bomb threat against the U.S. consulate in Halifax.

With files from CityNews, Global News and The Globe and Mail