At least 25 passenger flights across Europe targeted by bomb threats

For the third time this week, false bomb threats are disrupting European air traffic today, forcing many planes to change course, particularly flights departing from Italy bound for Bulgaria or the Czech Republic.

As of 3:30 p.m. Cyprus time, at least 25 flights had made unscheduled landings or were escorted by fighter jets.

Many aircraft were grounded or returned to their airports of departure, and passengers were disembarked while the planes were inspected. All flights landed safely, as the authorities emphasized.

Checks by Italian bomb disposal experts yielded a negative result following a bomb threat on an Aegean Airlines flight operating the Thessaloniki-Milan route.

In addition to Aegean flight A3552, the alert also involved a Ryanair aircraft, which took off from Porto and arrived at Malpensa Airport.

The inspections by Italian bomb disposal experts lasted a total of nearly four hours, and the case is now being handled by the public prosecutor’s office in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy.

Similar alerts were triggered, among others, for a Finnair aircraft arriving from Helsinki, which landed this morning at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, escorted by Italian Air Force fighter jets, as well as a Wizz Air aircraft operating the Milan–Warsaw route.

That aircraft made an emergency landing at Vienna Airport, and —following inspections by bomb disposal experts—the results were negative in both cases.

Aegean’s Statement

In a statement, Aegean Airlines confirmed that today, November 5, it was informed of a bomb threat on flight A3552 from Thessaloniki to Milan and flight A3860 from Athens to Vienna.

According to the company, in close cooperation with the relevant authorities, all required security protocols were implemented, and following the completion of procedures and confirmation that the threat was unfounded, the flights departed from the aforementioned airports.

“The safety of our passengers and crews is and will continue to be our top priority,” the company noted in its statement.

Bulgaria

This morning, three Ryanair aircraft, operating flights from Madrid, Copenhagen, and London-Stansted to Sofia, were the target of false bomb threats, a spokesperson for the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport told Agence France-Presse.

Two aircraft landed in Sofia, their intended destination, while the third, from London-Stansted, was diverted to the airport in Plovdiv, east of the capital.

The three aircraft were inspected and no explosives were found, a spokesperson for the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior told Agence France-Presse.

Czech Republic

“After receiving a threat regarding the presence of improvised explosive devices on four planes bound for Prague, we began preparing for their landing,” the Czech police told X late this morning.

“We believe these threats are unlikely to be credible. Nevertheless, we are not underestimating the situation, and all necessary security measures have been implemented, ensuring that their impact on passengers and airport operations is minimized as much as possible,” the police added.

Italy

An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted this morning to the Évreux air base in France, French authorities announced.

In a statement, Aer Lingus confirmed that flight EI402 “landed safely” and that the airline is working to transport its passengers to their final destinations “as soon as possible.”

Another Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome was also the target of a false bomb threat and, escorted by Italian fighter jets, landed at Rome’s Fiumicino, a spokesperson for the Rome airport authority told Agence France-Presse. “Nothing unusual was found,” said a Finnair spokesperson.

Another Finnair flight from Helsinki to Vienna was also the target of a false bomb threat, added spokeswoman Stena Tuunanen.

Two Wizz Air flights that departed from Milan’s Malpensa Airport in northern Italy were also affected—one bound for Bucharest and the other for Warsaw. The flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna, the airline said in a statement.

A Wizz Air flight from Milan landed safely in Bucharest, the Romanian news agency reported. Italian media reported that a Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw had been diverted to Vienna.

Spanish authorities received three bomb threats via email in less than 20 minutes at around 9 a.m. local time, which concerned two Air Europa departures from Madrid to Paris and four incoming Iberia flights from Rome and Milan, Spain’s Civil Protection Agency said.

Two EasyJet flights from the United Kingdom, one flight from Ireland, and one from Greece landed as scheduled in Prague following bomb threats.

The LOT flight from Warsaw landed as scheduled in Brussels following a security alert, the Polish airline reported.

And in Denmark, a military bomb disposal unit searched two planes at Copenhagen Airport but found no explosive devices, police said.

Third Wave of Threats

On Monday, a Wizz Air flight from London Luton Airport to Sofia was diverted due to a bomb threat and was forced to make an emergency landing in Budapest.

On Tuesday, about ten commercial flights in Europe were targeted by similar threats.

At least four of the alerts involved flights operated by the Irish airline Ryanair. Two flights bound for Warsaw—one operated by the Scandinavian airline SAS and the other by the Polish airline LOT— were also targeted, as well as a Wizz Air flight from Bergamo, Italy, to Sofia.

All aircraft were searched upon landing, but no suspicious devices were found.

Also on Tuesday, a cruise ship received a bomb threat.

These incidents come as cyberattacks by unknown hackers targeted refrigerators in supermarkets across many European countries. Some experts have stated that the false bomb threats could be part of a similar pattern of low-cost, untraceable attempts to cause disruption.

Anonymous threats

These bomb threats, whose origin and motives are currently unknown, are part of a broader trend of increased hybrid attacks in Europe, which authorities or investigators sometimes link to Russia or Iran.

Eric Suten, head of the aviation security team at Dyami, stated that most of the affected countries have supported Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion.

Today in the Czech Republic, “Prague Airport received the threats via email,” airport spokeswoman Denisa Hejtmanková told Agence France-Presse. She added that the emails came from anonymous addresses.

During a hearing before members of parliament in late October, a high-ranking French security official, Secretary General for Defense and National Security, Nicolas Ross, spoke about “the implementation and increasing scale of hybrid attacks in all their diversity—sabotage, cyberattacks, drones, and, obviously, espionage—that we are seeing take place in Europe.”

“I see no reason why this type of attack should stop at our country’s borders today and not continue to affect us in the coming months,” she added.

SEE ALSO: How Vulnerable Are Businesses to Cyberattacks? The “attack” on refrigerators and the “white-hat hackers” | AlphaNews

Source: APE-MPE