Wave of Bomb Threats Disrupts and Diverts Flights Across Europe

A surge of bomb threats caused diversions and emergency landings for several commercial flights in Europe. These threats, though later deemed as hoaxes, impacted the operations of airlines such as Aer Lingus, Finnair, and Wizz Air.

Multiple Flights Affected

At least 11 flights from cities like Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan, and Warsaw were affected on Thursday. Authorities were unable to immediately identify the source of these threats. Earlier in the week, similar warnings were received, which the UK government labeled as “malicious hoax threats.”

Upon receiving a threat regarding the placement of an improvised explosive device on board 4 aircraft heading to Prague, we are preparing with colleagues from Prague Airport for their landing. We assess the relevance of the threats as low, Czech Police wrote on X. Inspections of these planes showed negative results, confirming there were no threats.

The European officials have been on high alert, attributing blame for “hybrid attacks” to Russia and Iran. Both Moscow and Tehran have denied these accusations, as reported by Reuters.

Incidents Across Europe

Several flights were impacted specifically:

• A Ryanair flight, after departing from Copenhagen and Madrid, landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, in response to threats received.
• A Dublin to Rome flight was redirected to a military air base in France. This plane landed safely with all passengers and crew disembarking without incident.
• A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels completed its journey with no hazardous findings during inspections.
• A Wizz Air flight from Milan landed safely in Bucharest following threat reports.
• Finnair’s flight from Helsinki to Rome also received a threat but arrived safely in Italy without incident.

Additionally, Ryanair faced multiple emergency landings bound for Sofia, Bulgaria. Flights from Copenhagen and Madrid landed safely, while another from London’s Stansted diverted to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Greg Norman from Fox News Digital also reported on these incidents.