Authorities across Europe scrambled multiple flights on Thursday after a wave of bomb threats forced emergency landings in Italy, Bulgaria and France.
Finnair Flight 1761, traveling from Helsinki to Rome, received a bomb threat in flight. The plane landed normally in Rome, and a search turned up nothing out of the ordinary, according to Finnish broadcaster Yle.
Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, also had to divert because of bomb threats on board. One flight from Copenhagen and another from Madrid both landed safely at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, airport officials said. A third flight, traveling from London Stansted to Sofia, was diverted and landed instead at the airport in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, according to Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev.
Separately, an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in Evreux, in Normandy, after a bomb threat, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said. All 151 passengers and six crew members landed safely, and military bomb defusal teams were examining the aircraft. Flight tracking data showed the plane approaching Paris before sharply veering off course, looping several times, and heading for Evreux. Lecornu’s office said it was monitoring the situation in real time and released no further details.
The five diversions follow a string of hoax bomb threats across Europe this week that have prompted searches, diversions, and in one case a military escort. Flights operated by Polish carrier LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair were all targeted. A day before, a flight bound for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after a similar threat was phoned in mid-flight. No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
The threats are not unprecedented, but they land amid heightened geopolitical tension across the continent, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions into European airspace and unexplained triggering of emergency alert apps. Authorities have warned that these kinds of hybrid disruptions are increasingly common.
