A slew of bomb threats against European airlines has resulted in mass reroutings and flight delays over European skies and at major hubs, amid a scramble to find out who is making these threats.
"At least 18 commercial flights in Europe had to deal with bomb threats Thursday, with at least one being diverted to a military base in France," CBS reports of the developing Thursday incidents.
"While authorities have reported no explosives discovered on any of the jets, and they all appeared to be hoaxes, Thursday's incidents add to a fast-growing number of journeys hit by similar threats this week," the report continues.
Some are calling it a "very deliberate act" - which seems coordinated to sow panic and flight disruptions. But authorities have come up with no workable theories or links to any entity behind it so far.
Earlier this week, security officials in the UK deemed that threats against about seven flights were hoaxes. By Thursday these 'hoax' threats had impacted at least 25 flights, disrupting travel for thousands.
And in some cases flights have had to be diverted midair. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome early in the afternoon of Thursday had to land at a military air bace in France, the French government confirmed. Bomb units investigated the plane upon landing, after all 151 passengers and six crew members safely disembarked.
Based on CBS and international reporting, the below is a list of impacted or diverted flights thus far on Thursday:
- Ireland–Italy Aer Lingus: Diverted to Evreux air base in France following a bomb threat; 157 passengers and crew deplaned safely for military inspection.
- Finnair Flights: A Helsinki–Rome flight was escorted by fighter jets to Rome, briefly grounding airport operations, while a second Helsinki flight landed normally in Vienna.
- Wizz Air Flights: Threat reports forced a Milan–Warsaw flight to reroute to Vienna and prompted security checks on a Bucharest-bound flight after a safe landing.
- LOT Polish Airlines: A Warsaw–Brussels flight landed safely in Belgium, where security sweeps cleared the aircraft of any hazards.
- Bulgarian Diverted Flights: Three Sofia-bound Ryanair flights made emergency landings across Bulgaria due to threat alerts; no explosives were found.
- Prague Inbound Threats: Four incoming flights landed safely in the Czech capital and were cleared by police after security evaluations.
- Milan Malpensa Inbound: Two flights from Thessaloniki and Porto landed safely following bomb alerts and underwent explosive inspections without diverting.
- Madrid Barajas Threats: Three flights were impacted by bomb threats, but security forces quickly cleared all aircraft and ruled out the threats.
To be expected, some European media reports are immediately pointing the finger at Russian intelligence or proxies and 'hybrid warfare'.
The Guardian highlights the large geographic scope of the hoaxes and threats, writing:
Bomb threats have caused diversions and emergency landings for at least 15 flights across Europe, renewing questions about a possibly coordinated effort to disrupt travel.
The series of warnings on Thursday morning affected flights between Italy, Ireland, the UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and Czechia.
On Tuesday seven planes across Europe were searched or diverted because of malicious hoax bomb alerts. On Monday a flight from the UK to Bulgaria was diverted after a threat that was apparently without substance.
Flight map source:
The reports speculates that "simply creating disruption could be regarded as a success by those carrying out the hoaxes."
Likely as European security officials move into the investigative phase, there will be more and more finger-pointing at Russia or its allies, for example Belarus. However, at this early point European media has stressed that "Initial searches of some of the planes found nothing suspicious." Interestingly, almost all of the cases involved budget or low-cost carriers.