Over the course of Monday, November 2, and Tuesday, a series of bomb threats across various European flights forced those aircraft to divert their routes and undergo security checks upon arriving at airports. One incident even prompted the Italian Air Force to escort a flight until it safely landed.
Since Monday, flights across Europe have been disrupted by multiple bomb threats, impacting various airlines including two Wizz Air flights, one LOT Polish Airlines flight, one Scandinavian Airlines flight, and two Ryanair flights.
A spokesperson for Wizz Air reported that on Tuesday, one of its flights flying from Bergamo, Italy, to Sofia, Bulgaria, was subjected to a bomb threat and underwent a thorough search upon arrival. Just a day earlier, another Wizz Air flight traveling from London Luton Airport to Sofia had also been forced to divert to Budapest, Hungary, due to a similar threat.
In light of these bomb threats, numerous airports undertook heightened security measures, inspecting the flights involved diligently.
On Tuesday, a flight from London to Warsaw Chopin Airport was diverted to Warsaw Modlin Airport. This flight, operated by LOT Polish Airlines, arrived and ultimately led to the temporary closure of the airport as security protocols were enacted.
Another flight, which was en route from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Warsaw Chopin Airport, also received a bomb threat. Despite the alarming message, that flight successfully landed as scheduled, after which it was thoroughly checked by the authorities.
According to reports from the Associated Press, a nameless Italian official confirmed that a Ryanair flight departing from Lisbon, Portugal, had received an email claiming there was a bomb on board. Nonetheless, this flight continued to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport as planned. Subsequently, bomb disposal experts conducted security screenings of passengers, crew members, and luggage, finding no explosives.
The same official noted that another Ryanair flight also received a similar email threatening the safety of a plane flying from Dublin, Ireland, to Rome. In response, the Italian Air Force provided an escort for this aircraft until it landed safely at Fiumicino Airport.
Fortunately, throughout this series of bomb threats on Tuesday, no injuries were reported, and there were no emergency landings necessitated by the incidents.