Bomb threats halted flights in Europe

Hoax bomb threats caused the disruption of at least 34 flights across Europe. While some planes had to make emergency landings, it remains unclear who was behind the attempts, which were thought to be coordinated.

A series of reports made on Thursday; It affected flights between Italy, Ireland, the UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, France, Greece, Serbia and the Czech Republic.

NO SUSPICIOUS FINDINGS WERE FOUND IN THE SEARCHES

Flights belonging to Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, Finnair, easyJet, Aegean Airlines, Iberia, Sky Express, Air Serbia and LOT Polish Airlines were affected by the notices. All planes landed safely. No suspicious findings were found during the searches carried out on the planes.

In England, London's main airport, Heathrow, and Birmingham Airport also received bomb threats at night. However, as a result of the investigation carried out by expert teams in the aviation police unit of the London Metropolitan Police, it was determined that the reports were unfounded.

The Metropolitan Police announced that four planes taking off from or landing at Heathrow Airport were targeted.

Thursday's hoax tip-offs follow incidents across Europe on Tuesday, when seven planes were searched or diverted due to malicious tip-offs. On Monday, a flight from England to Bulgaria had to change its route following an apparently false tip.

INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE

Investigations into the incidents across Europe continue.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) condemned the disruptions in flights and called on the authorities to identify the source of the reports.

“Security is the industry's number one priority and we take all threats seriously,” IATA Senior Vice President of Operations, Safety and Security Nick Careen said in a statement.

EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said that it was too early to understand whether there was a connection between the incidents, but that any threat to civilians was unacceptable.

On another Ryanair flight from Pescara, Italy, to Brussels-Charleroi, the plane was inspected after it was noticed that the word "bomb" was scrawled on the wall of the toilet.

According to Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency, the impact of the flights affected by the disruptions on total flight traffic was limited. Only a small fraction of the 27,400 flights scheduled across Europe on Thursday were affected by these incidents.

According to reports in the French press, the pilot of the Aer Lingus plane, which was directed to the Évreux military air base in France upon a bomb threat while traveling from Dublin to Rome, was being questioned by French authorities for initially refusing to land at the military base.

The flight disruptions follow cyber attacks this week targeting the refrigeration systems of supermarkets across Europe.

On the other hand, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that it was "absurd" to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration responsible for cyber attacks on refrigerator systems.

"We are faced with such accusations that have no basis and link our country with everything," Peskov told reporters.