Several new bomb threats on planes flying over France, government announces investigation

A new wave of false bomb threats. A Ryanair flight which was to leave Lisbon for Rome on Friday morning was targeted by a “bomb threat” which turned out to be a false alarm, Portuguese authorities announced.

The alert was given while the aircraft which was to operate this flight was still making its previous connection and was approaching Lisbon airport, also coming from Rome. “Following the bomb threat targeting flight FR8197, departing from Lisbon and bound for Rome, we inform that the Special Police Unit (UEP) carried out a security inspection of the aircraft, without any explosive device or suspicious object having been detected,” the Portuguese police indicated in a press release. All passengers and their luggage “were subjected to a security check again, without any anomaly or suspicious object being detected,” she said.

At least eight flights departing from or arriving in Prague were also hit by false alarms this Friday, the Czech capital's airport said. “The threats concern flights arriving from Denmark, Spain and Great Britain. As for the departing flights, these are flights to the Netherlands, Cyprus, Romania, Italy and Great Britain,” said an airport spokesperson.

Four new bomb threats were issued on Friday on planes flying over French territory, which landed “without incident”, and on which the mine clearance services “are carrying out safety inspections”, Matignon also announced. “An investigation is underway to determine the origin of these alerts which affect all of Europe,” added the services of the French Prime Minister, in charge of security and air defense of the country. Three of these aircraft landed at Orly, and the fourth in Bordeaux, according to a source informed of the matter.

Around twenty flights targeted by bomb threats Thursday

After similar false alarms at the start of the week, at least 20 flights - most of them low-cost airlines - were targeted by bomb threats late Thursday afternoon, according to several authorities and airlines. All the planes - including three which were diverted - landed without incident and no explosives were found, they said.

No claim was made for all of the flights, but threats against some of them, sent to Rome and Sofia airports, were said to have come from “male state fighters”. This seems to refer to the name of a Russian ultranationalist movement, without it being possible to verify the link.

The British airport in Birmingham, in central England, told AFP it had received a similar threat, in which the group was referred to as the “State of Men” and which turned out to be “a hoax”. A Heathrow spokesperson said that this London airport had received a threat which had been “deemed not credible”. The French Air Force announced that two of its combat planes had escorted an aircraft from the Irish company Aer Lingus, which linked Dublin to Rome, to Normandy after an alert from the Italian authorities.