Airports across Europe: bomb threats against passenger aircraft

dpa | For the second time this week, several European flights have been hit by bomb threats. Due to a bomb threat, a scheduled flight between Dublin and Rome was diverted to France. The plane landed at Évreux military airport, the French Prime Minister's Office announced. The 151 passengers and 6 crew members would be brought to safety. Explosives experts are now on duty. Évreux is located about 100 kilometers northwest of the French capital Paris. There had already been bomb threats against commercial flights in Europe on Tuesday.

There were also incidents in Italy: after anonymous tips about a suspected bomb alarm on board a Finnair plane from Helsinki, which landed at Rome Fiumicino Airport around 9:30 a.m. escorted by fighter jets from the Italian Air Force, police explosives experts initiated the planned security checks. These continue, as the Ansa news agency reported.

According to the Ansa agency, a plane that took off from Milan-Malpensa Airport in the morning was diverted to Vienna because of a bomb threat received during the flight and landed there. An Austrian police spokesman confirmed the landing upon request. An email containing a bomb threat had previously been received in Poland. However, no threat was identified in Vienna. It was said that the plane was now on its way to Warsaw. The spokesman spoke of an “abstract” threat and referred to similar incidents in the recent past.

There were threats against two flights at Copenhagen Airport. When the planes were searched, nothing suspicious was found, the police told the Ritzau news agency: "In our opinion, there is or was no danger to passengers or other people staying at the airport." A spokesman did not want to say which flights were involved.

Several bomb threats have also affected air traffic in Prague. Czech police told X that warnings had been received about improvised explosive devices on board four aircraft. After landing at Václav Havel International Airport, the planes would be searched by specialists. Nevertheless, the relevance of the threats is considered low.

Three Ryanair planes received bomb threats on their way to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian news agency BTA reported, citing the Ministry of Transport in Sofia. A plane from London was diverted to Plovdiv airport. The two other planes – from Copenhagen and Madrid – landed in Sofia as scheduled. There was a similar case in neighboring Romania: a Wizz Air plane received a bomb threat on its flight from Milan to Bucharest, but landed safely and as planned in Romania's capital, the Romanian news agency Mediafax reported. The domestic secret service SRI is now examining the aircraft, it was said.