Security: Authorities are puzzling over bomb threats in air traffic - including threats against media companies

The series of mysterious bomb threats in European air traffic continues. Several cases were reported again on Friday. In total, there have been at least 30 threats against aircraft since Tuesday. Meanwhile, almost identical threats against media companies are causing an uproar in Ireland.

A Wizzair flight from Prague to Rome had to be diverted to Venice due to a threat, according to the Italian news agency Ansa. In Lisbon, Portugal, two bomb threats were received against the same Ryanair plane, as the state TV broadcaster RTP reported, citing the police.

There were also bomb threats against planes from London and Brussels to Sofia. The planes landed safely at Sofia Airport and “nothing alarming” was discovered during checks by the border police, as Sofia public radio reported. According to an airport spokeswoman, threats were directed against nine flights in Prague, and there were also incidents in France.

There have been numerous such threats in European air traffic in the past few days. More than a dozen passenger flights were affected on Thursday alone. However, it is still unclear who is behind the threats.

Several authorities in European countries are now investigating the incidents. In response to the tense situation, the EU Commission activated a mechanism for cross-border information exchange, a spokeswoman confirmed. The Brussels authority coordinates the agreements between the affected EU countries. The European aviation safety agency EASA, based in Cologne, is also involved in the exchange.

France's judiciary has launched a preliminary investigation, the French Prime Minister's office said. The Czech police unit for the fight against extremism, terrorism and cybercrime is also investigating. The authorities in Ireland are also concerned about the incidents.

At least four of the flights threatened on Friday passed through German airspace. The German air traffic control center in Karlsruhe for upper airspace forwarded information about the threats to the crews and neighboring air traffic control, a spokeswoman said. Bomb threats do occur again and again, but this frequency is unusual.

Employees of Irish broadcaster RTÉ and other media companies had to be evacuated to safety after a bomb threat in the morning. In addition to RTÉ, the newspaper “Irish Independent” and the radio station “Newstalk” are also affected.

It is unclear whether the threats against the media companies are related to the incidents in air traffic. “However, these threats come on the heels of ongoing disruption to European air travel caused by similar threats and it appears likely that this is a coordinated campaign of disruption,” the Irish government said in a statement to the PA news agency.

The damage to passengers has so far been at least limited. So far, the bomb threats have had no impact on delays in the European air traffic network, as the aviation security organization Eurocontrol announced at the request of the German Press Agency.

According to Eurocontrol, threats against 14 flights were known on Thursday and around 7 on Tuesday. The affected flights accounted for around 0.05 percent on Thursday, out of 28,488 flights across Europe. On Tuesday there were 26,278 flights, around 0.03 percent.