BERLIN — Several flights across Europe received alleged bomb threats on Tuesday that ultimately turned out to be hoaxes but prompted searches, diversions and, in one case, an escort by the Italian Air Force until landing, officials said.
The impacted airlines included Polish airline LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The incidents came a day after a plane headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in the air. No one was injured.
Matthew Borie of Osprey Flight Solutions, which advises airlines on flight threats, laid out several hypotheses for the as-yet unexplained incidents: A single threat triggers copycat incidents; an individual or a group makes multiple threats; or operations of “hybrid warfare” by state actors or their supporters.
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 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? “Don’t be alarmed,” he said, noting “coordinated response mechanisms” by national authorities — including, at times, the deployment of NATO fighter jets to escort such planes.
A Ryanair flight from Lisbon landed in Rome’s Fiumicino airport Tuesday morning after receipt of an email reporting a bomb was 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.
There was also a bomb threat reported on another Ryanair flight to Rome from Dublin, with no explosives found, the official said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The Italian Air Force confirmed it scrambled two Air Force Eurofighters to “intercept and escort” a plane bound for Rome. It said it responded immediately “following a report of a suspected threat aboard a civilian aircraft flying from Dublin to Rome Fiumicino.”
In Poland, meanwhile, 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 press agency PAP reported. Modlin Airport was closed temporarily.
LOT said “nothing was found on the aircraft” after a search of the jet at Modlin. Airport officials said normal airport operations had resumed. They did not give further details on the nature of the threats.
Chopin Airport also received information about a potentially dangerous item on board a Scandinavian Airlines, or SAS, flight inbound from Copenhagen, PAP reported. The airport’s communications office told the news agency that standard safety 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 has been referred to the Polish police.
Spanish officials on Tuesday ruled out the presence of explosives on a Ryanair plane from Manchester that landed in southern Spain’s Murcia Airport 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, on X. The flight had 121 people on board, including crew, he said.
Bulgarian authorities found no signs of explosives on two aircraft at the Sofia International Airport that had both received bomb threats Tuesday while en route, Bulgaria’s Minister of Transportation Georgi Peev said on Tuesday, according to state news agency BTA.
The two planes, originating in Bergamo, Italy, and Dublin, Ireland, were inspected by officers of the Specialized Counter-Terrorism Unit after landing in Sofia. Neither had been diverted due to the bomb threats.
Peev said that the initial information on 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 that landed the aircraft safely in Sofia.
The bomb threats came a day after a Wizz Air flight that departed Luton Airport near London was forced to divert to Hungary after a bomb threat received while the plane was in the air.
Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said in a Facebook post on Monday that a Gripen fighter jet from the Hungarian Air Force was scrambled to intercept the Wizz Air flight and escorted it safely to the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest.
Authorities found no threat aboard the aircraft after conducting an inspection of the plane and its passengers, Wizz Air told state news agency MTI.
On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s acting Interior Ministry Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov told reporters that authorities were still trying to identify the sender of the threat.
Last month, a flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an emergency landing in Bulgaria following a bomb threat.
Greek authorities were investigating a bomb threat against a Panamanian-flagged, Israeli-run cruise ship in the port of the Aegean island of Syros.
No suspicious objects were found in Tuesday’s initial search of the cruise ship, the Crown Iris, by coast guard officers with a sniffer dog and a diver, and a specialist diving unit was on its way to conduct further checks, the coast guard said.
The ship, which had been scheduled to sail for Haifa in Israel with 940 passengers and 597 crew 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 opposing the war in Gaza.
__
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.
