Wave of bomb threats hits flights across Europe, searches find no explosives

Flights across Europe have been diverted, grounded and escorted by fighter jets in response to a wave of bomb threats, marking a second major outbreak of false alerts in less than a week. Security inspections have found no evidence of explosives.

On Thursday, planes departing from 16 countries, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Denmark, were affected. Flights were either forced to divert to alternate locations or undergo additional security checks. On Friday, the threats continued.

Authorities have deployed bomb disposal teams and military fighter jets in several countries. So far, security inspections following threats have yielded no evidence of explosives or suspicious materials on board aircraft, and no passenger has reported being harmed.

On Friday, a Ryanair flight landed in Lisbon, Portugal, at 8am after a bomb threat was made by phone to the authorities, Italian media reported. A security operation was mounted as soon as the plane landed. Separately, the control tower in Fiumicino, Italy, received an alert about a device aboard a Wizzair flight to Rome from Paris. The flight was diverted to Venice, where police were clearing the area around the plane.

Joji Waites, director of flight safety, policy and regulation at BALPA, the British Airlines Pilots' Association, said that when an airline is notified of a threat to an aircraft, it is passed to a team of assessors. 'These assessors use standard processes to grade the threat and decide whether the threat is red (credible), amber (partially credible) or green (not credible). Amber is not considered an appropriate assessment if the plane is airborne,' Waites said.

An airport official said that after receiving a threat, an aircraft is directed to an area well away from the airport buildings. Passengers are disembarked and screened while border police with sniffer dogs inspect the plane.

The incidents follow a series of hoax bomb threats earlier in the week. On Monday, a flight from the UK to Bulgaria was diverted after a threat that turned out to be without substance. On Tuesday, seven planes across Europe were searched or diverted because of malicious hoax bomb alerts.

Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University, said the scale and coordinated nature of the latest incidents are unusual. He said individual airlines experience a bomb threat every day, but most are very quickly evaluated and determined to be non-specific, and the aircraft do not divert.

What sets the latest incidents apart, Baum said, is that authorities across several European countries appear to be treating the threats as credible enough to require planes to land and undergo security inspections. He noted that each flight disruption could cost airlines as much as $250,000.

The UK government called the latest disruption 'malicious hoax threats'. London Heathrow, the busiest airport for passenger traffic in Europe, was also targeted.

The European Commissioner for Transport said it is too early to say who is behind these attacks or whether the incidents are even connected. European governments have so far refrained from blaming anyone.

However, countries that have supported Ukraine are wary of hybrid attacks. Germany has directly pointed the finger at Russia for recent drone incursions at Leipzig-Halle Airport; Moscow rejected the accusations. There is no evidence of involvement by Russia, Iran or any proxy groups linked to them in the threats to aviation in Europe, and Moscow has denied involvement.