Bomb Threats Hit More Than 14 Flights Across Europe for Second Time This Week, Several Forced to Land

Bomb threats have been made against various flights across Europe for the second time this week. On Thursday, reports of such threats were received for more than 14 flights, according to the BBC and Reuters.

No country has blamed anyone for these threats. But they came at a time when European officials are accusing Russia and Iran of what they call 'hybrid attacks' and acts of sabotage. Both Moscow and Tehran have denied any such operation.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described them as 'malicious hoax threats'.

Irish airline Aer Lingus said in a statement that its Dublin-to-Rome flight EI402 was diverted for security reasons. The aircraft landed safely on Thursday at Evreux airport, located 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Paris. A photo showed the Dublin-to-Rome Aer Lingus Airbus A320 at the Evreux military air base in France.

Bulgarian officials said three aircraft were forced to make emergency landings in the Balkan country because of bomb threats. Citing broadcaster bTV, the country's interior minister said flights from Copenhagen and Madrid landed safely in Sofia. According to local media, a third aircraft from London was diverted to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city. There was no response from the government to a request for comment.

Czech police said on X that on Thursday bomb threats were made against four aircraft bound for Prague. Authorities are preparing for the aircraft to land, although they consider the credibility of the threats to be very low.

A source involved in the incident said an Italian air force escort brought in safely a Finnair aircraft travelling from Helsinki to Rome. Finnair said another of its aircraft departing Helsinki landed normally in Vienna despite receiving a bomb threat.

Polish airline LOT said one of its Warsaw-to-Brussels aircraft landed safely at its destination after a security alert and nothing suspicious was found there. The airline also said one of its Paris-bound aircraft was stopped while taxiing on the runway for takeoff and passengers were transferred to another aircraft as a precaution.

According to Italian media reports, a Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was forced to land in Vienna because of a bomb threat.

Earlier, on Tuesday, bomb threats were made against at least seven flights and a cruise ship, causing chaos at various airports across Europe. However, no explosives or suspicious objects were found.

Experts say the hoax bomb threats may be part of the same kind of cheap and deniable sabotage effort. Eliran Almog, chief executive of aviation cybersecurity firm Cyviation, said repeated threats like these can disrupt operations and also allow observation of how airlines, airports and national authorities respond. Almog said: 'These threats in aviation are happening at exactly the same time as the cyberattack on supermarket refrigeration systems across Europe.' The report also said unknown hackers this week disabled refrigerators or cooling systems in supermarkets in several European countries.