Source: BBC
Seven passenger aircraft were searched on Tuesday after a string of bomb threats across Europe, with security teams finding no explosives on any of them. The incidents involved flights landing in Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Spain, coming a day after a separate threat forced a plane bound for Sofia to divert to Budapest.
In Rome, police and bomb disposal teams examined two Ryanair aircraft at Fiumicino airport. One flight had left Dublin and was escorted by Italian Air Force jets until it landed. The second had originated in Lisbon. Checks of passengers, luggage and the planes themselves produced negative results, and the alerts were lifted.
Two more aircraft were inspected in Warsaw. A Lot flight that had taken off from London Heathrow for Warsaw Chopin airport diverted sharply and landed instead at Warsaw Modlin. Passengers and crew waited in the arrival halls while specialists continued their work; parts of the airport remained closed for a time. A separate SAS service from Copenhagen landed as scheduled at Chopin and was also checked. Verified images later confirmed the Scandinavian aircraft on the tarmac.
In Bulgaria, border police received an email warning of explosive devices on two flights arriving in Sofia. One was a Wizz Air service from Bergamo in Italy that landed at 11:10 local time; the other had departed Dublin and arrived later in the afternoon. Officers from the specialised counter-terrorism unit and border police, helped by sniffer dogs, examined both aircraft, their passengers, crew and luggage. Nothing was found. Bulgarian officials confirmed the planes had not been diverted.
Further west, a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Murcia in southern Spain was searched after landing. A local official reported that 121 people, including crew, left the aircraft. Civil Guard teams ruled out explosives and the airport returned to normal operations. One passenger said the crew gave no indication of a problem during the flight. After a sudden stop on the runway, fire engines, police and a bomb squad surrounded the plane. Passengers walked to the terminal under escort, leaving their belongings behind, and learned of the threat only later.
The Tuesday events followed a similar episode on Monday. A Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Sofia made an emergency landing in Budapest after a mid-air threat and was escorted by a Hungarian fighter jet. Security checks there also found nothing.
European authorities are examining whether the threats were linked. Aviation security specialists note that such warnings, often delivered by phone or email, remain relatively uncommon and are treated as genuine until cleared. Crews may search toilets, galleys and storage areas quietly while airborne; once on the ground the aircraft is usually isolated, passengers disembarked and specialist teams brought in. Passengers are not always told the reason for any diversion or delay.
The UK government described the day’s threats as “malicious hoax threats” and said the country maintains well-tested processes and close cooperation between police and intelligence agencies to handle them. No explosives were recovered from any of the seven aircraft searched on Tuesday or the flight diverted the day before.
