Bomb alert on flights in European skies, emergency landings in France and Bulgaria
Several flights transiting European skies were subjected to anonymous threats, forcing emergency landings and clean-up procedures at various airports.
Quick Look
- A series of anonymous bomb scares hit several flights in Europe today, causing hijackings and emergency landings in Fiumicino, Vienna, Evreux and Bulgaria.
- The authorities have activated the security procedures for the necessary checks.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
There have been a series of false bomb scares on European flights in recent days, including similar cases on November 3 at Fiumicino.
Several bomb alerts today for flights operated in European skies. Anonymous reports indicated an alleged bomb threat on board a Finnair flight from Helsinki, which landed at Fiumicino airport around 9.30 am and was escorted by Air Force jets. According to reconstructions from airport sources, the clean-up operations envisaged in these circumstances were activated and are still underway this morning, as per the safety procedure, by the police bomb squad.
Three flights departing from Malpensa were also affected by the alarms
Instead, an Airbus A321 of the Wizz Air company landed at Vienna airport, having taken off at 7am from Malpensa Silvio Berlusconi airport bound for Warsaw and then diverted to the Austrian capital "following a bomb threat received during the flight", as specified by the airline itself. Two other bomb alerts on planes departing from Malpensa concerned an Aegean Airlines A3552 flight which departed from Thessaloniki and landed in Malpensa at 9.33am and another Ryanair FR8953 which departed from Porto and landed in Malpensa at 10.22am.
Alarm also for Dublin-Fiumicino flight
Also this morning a second bomb threat was received in relation to the Aer Lingus flight heading from Dublin to Fiumicino. The commander chose to land at Evreux airport, in France, for the appropriate checks. This was announced in a statement by the French Prime Minister's office, which made it known that it was carefully monitoring the situation.
Three planes landed in Bulgaria
Three other planes were forced to land at Bulgarian airports due to bomb scares. Two of the planes, coming respectively from Copenhagen and Madrid, landed in Sofia – as reported by the broadcaster bTV, which quotes the Interior Minister. A third aircraft, coming from London, landed in Plovdiv.
The precedents
The latest alarms are not an isolated episode. In recent days there have been several cases of alarms, which fortunately later turned out to be false. On Tuesday 3 November the false alarms concerned two Ryanair flights that landed at Rome Fiumicino airport, arriving from Lisbon and Dublin respectively.
Open Questions
- Who is responsible for anonymous threats?
- Is there a direct connection between the various episodes?
