A fresh barrage of bomb threats threw European air travel into chaos Thursday, forcing more than a dozen passenger flights to divert, land under military escort, or undergo exhaustive searches. No explosives turned up anywhere.
This marks the second such disruption in a single week. Security agencies across multiple countries have opened investigations, yet officials still cannot say who sent the threats or whether they came from a coordinated source. Several arrived by email.
One Ryanair flight from Dublin to Rome touched down instead at Évreux military airport in France. All 151 passengers and six crew exited safely. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal ordered fighter jets to intercept the aircraft after the pilot initially declined the unscheduled landing. Explosives specialists swept the plane, and aviation police launched a formal inquiry.
Italy faced similar turmoil. A Finnair jet arriving from Helsinki landed at Rome Fiumicino under Italian Air Force escort following an anonymous threat. Separately, a flight out of Milan Malpensa diverted to Vienna mid-journey after Polish authorities received an emailed warning. Austrian police called the threat “abstract,” found nothing dangerous, and allowed the plane to continue to Warsaw.
Vienna also received emails targeting four other flights, though officials said those threats had no connection to the Milan diversion.
Copenhagen Airport saw two threatened flights searched without result. Police there declared no danger to passengers or airport personnel. In Prague, authorities investigated warnings about improvised explosive devices on four planes landing at Václav Havel Airport. All received the all-clear after inspections. Czech counterterrorism and cybercrime units took over that probe.
Bulgarian officials reported three Ryanair aircraft threatened en route. One diverted to Plovdiv, while two landed in Sofia as planned. Romania faced two threats involving Wizz Air and Air Serbia flights into Bucharest. Both landed safely, and authorities deemed neither credible.
Tuesday brought a similar wave, temporarily closing Warsaw Modlin Airport. British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander condemned the incidents as “malicious hoax threats.” Eurocontrol, Europe’s air traffic management body, said it continues working with airlines and airports to limit disruption. Investigators told The Guardian they found no immediate link to any state actor. One expert noted that diversions happen because the threats appear specific enough to warrant precautionary searches.
