A wave of bomb threats were issued on Friday targeting passenger flights across Europe, for the third time this week, in addition to European broadcasting organizations that targeted the British Sky network and the Irish Radio and Television Corporation (RTE). The Spanish Foreign Minister said that the continent appears to be facing “aggression by all means and a form of psychological warfare.”
An RTE correspondent said live, reading excerpts from an email, that the agency had received an email bomb threat said to be from the same group behind the wave of bomb threats targeting passenger flights across Europe this week. The group's name was not mentioned in the excerpts read by the reporter on air.
No party claimed responsibility for the warnings on all flights, but threats targeted some of them and were directed at Rome and Sofia airports, which were reviewed by Agence France-Presse, issued by a party calling itself “fighters of the male state.” This name appears to refer to a Russian ultra-nationalist movement, but an actual connection to it could not be verified.
For its part, the British Birmingham Airport, in central England, told the French Press that it had received a similar threat in which the name of the group was mentioned in the form “Nation of Men,” and it turned out to be a “false report.” A spokesman for London Heathrow Airport said that the airport had received a threat that was “deemed not credible.”
Security experts said Thursday that the threats bear the characteristics of a coordinated “attack by all means,” but it is always possible that individuals made imitation threats, or acted out of personal grievances.
Police were deployed at the ITE headquarters in Dublin. It stated on its website that the RTÉ buildings were evacuated after receiving a bomb threat. Staff were also evacuated from the offices of the Irish Independent newspaper, News Talk and Today FM radio stations, and the Virgin Media television channel.
A broadcaster on the affected station, News Talk, described the matter as just a hoax. Broadcaster Claire Byrne said on air that the station resumed broadcasting at 10 a.m. after employees were informed that they could return to the building in central Dublin. The Irish Independent newspaper reported that its offices in the capital had also been evacuated.
The presenter of a morning news program on the authority's Radio One station said that to his knowledge, the emails were reportedly sent from the same accounts behind the false bomb threats that led to the disruption of dozens of passenger flights across Europe on Thursday.
Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said in a phone interview with RTE shortly after the broadcast disruption, which lasted more than an hour, ended: “It is worrying... We take the threat very seriously.” He added: “This shows how easy it is to cause disruption and disrupt the normal functioning of society through unconventional activities of this kind, designed to cause disruption and spread fear and anxiety. We have to stay calm and focus on this matter.”
The authorities have not yet held any party responsible for the threats that come ahead of high-level European Union meetings in Dublin next week.
The British Sky network also received a similar threat on Friday, hours after RTE evacuated its building. A spokesman for Sky, which is owned by Comcast, said in a statement: “Sky is one of a number of media organizations that received a security threat.”
The statement added, as reported by Reuters: “We conducted a security assessment and informed the relevant authorities. The safety and security of our colleagues is our primary priority, and we work closely with the authorities to ensure the security of our employees and the safe continuation of our operations. It is not appropriate to comment further at this time.”
The false threats disrupted dozens of European flights on Thursday, forcing some planes to land other than their scheduled destination, and prompting the dispatch of fighter planes to escort or intercept other planes, in a major escalation after the first wave on Tuesday. No explosive devices were found, and all planes landed safely.
A flight from Prague to Budapest, operated by the Romanian airline Tarom, received a bomb threat on board. The plane landed at its intended destination, and the airport authorities stated that the threat turned out to be a “false report.”
A spokeswoman for Prague Airport said: “The threats relate to flights coming from Denmark, Spain and Britain. As for departing flights, they include flights to the Netherlands, Cyprus, Romania, Italy and Britain. Another speaker indicated receiving “new threats” talking about “planting explosive devices on a larger number of aircraft,” compared to previous warnings. But he explained that airport movement is still “normal and smooth.”
The Hungarian Defense Minister said on social media that Hungarian fighter planes accompanied three civilian flights during their flight in the country’s airspace on Friday, because they were targeted by bomb threats. He added that the planes accompanied an Airbus A321 that was heading from Brussels to Sofia, in addition to two flights from Prague to Cyprus and to Bucharest.
In the Danish capital, Copenhagen, the police said on Friday that they went to the airport for the second day in a row against the backdrop of “threats targeting air traffic,” adding that the immediate assessment revealed that there were no risks to passengers or others at the airport, and indicating that air traffic was proceeding safely without disruption.
The Czech police said they were dealing with threats targeting aircraft on Friday, explaining that necessary security measures had been taken in cooperation with the authorities at Vaclav Havel Airport, and that these measures had a “limited impact on normal operations at the airport.”
A source at the Italian Airports Authority said shortly afterwards that a Wizz Air flight heading from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice and landed there safely.
A spokeswoman for the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport told Agence France-Presse that the authorities received warnings on Friday regarding two flights heading to Sofia. One from London Stansted Airport, the other from Brussels, and they landed without incident.
The French Prime Minister's office spoke about the receipt of four new bomb threats to target aircraft flying over French territory, and said that all of them landed safely. The office, which is responsible for security and air defense, added that “an investigation is underway to determine the source of these warnings that extend to all of Europe.”
The French Air Force announced that two of its fighters escorted an Irish Aer Lingus plane over the Normandy region, which was heading from Dublin to Rome, after a warning from the Italian authorities. Three of these planes landed at Orly Airport, and the fourth in Bordeaux, according to a source familiar with the file. Since the beginning of the week, similar warnings have targeted several flights in Europe, most of them low-cost airlines.
CNN Portugal reported that a bomb warning on a Ryanair flight from Rome to Lisbon led to a security operation being carried out upon landing.
No country has attributed responsibility for the threats to a specific party, but they come after a wave of acts of sabotage and attempts to target sites across Europe, ranging from German power plants, defense-related facilities in the Baltic region, supermarket refrigerators in France and elsewhere, and Leipzig Airport in Germany.
Many officials linked this campaign to Europe's support for Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion, and accused Moscow of waging a campaign of unrest "by all means" that represent low-cost, easy-to-deniable methods and are not expected to call for an armed response.
