15 European Flights Diverted or Checked After Bomb Threats
Airline officials reported that military teams inspected aircraft across the continent after a coordinated wave of hoax warnings disrupted travel on Thursday.
By Rafael Delgado ·
European aviation authorities responded to at least 15 commercial flights that received bomb threats on Thursday. The incidents included diversions to military airfields and emergency landings at civilian airports in France, Italy, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. No explosives were found on any of the aircraft.
Aer Lingus operated one of the most prominent diversions. A flight from Dublin to Rome turned sharply off its path and looped before landing at Evreux, a military base in western France. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office confirmed the diversion. The plane carried 151 passengers and six crew members, all of whom deplaned safely while bomb defusal teams examined the aircraft.
Other disruptions occurred across the continent. A Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome was escorted by a fighter jet, and Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Rome paused operations for 30 minutes. Wizz Air rerouted a Milan to Warsaw flight to Vienna. Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia made emergency landings in Bulgaria, with one diverting to Plovdiv. Czech police assessed four flights arriving in Prague, and two additional flights landed safely at Milan Malpensa.
British authorities had already dismissed threats to seven flights earlier in the week. The surge in incidents on Thursday pushed the weekly total of affected journeys to more than 20. Paul Mason, an air transport security expert, told the BBC that the volume of threats was unusual for passenger planes. He noted that the messages appeared credible and targeted a wide range of airlines.
Mason suggested the pattern indicated a deliberate act rather than a series of random coincidences. He explained that ground staff and crew follow specific processes to validate the credibility of such threats. He stated that a coordinated effort by a typical actor could explain the scale of the disruption.
Authorities have not confirmed a link between the different threats or identified a specific group responsible. Some warnings were sent via email, but the full nature of the messages remains unverified. No government official has pointed to a single perpetrator, though the timing aligns with rising concerns about hybrid warfare in Europe.
Sir Ken McCallum, head of Britain's MI5, warned in October that Russia and Iran are escalating low-level sabotage operations. He said Russia is currently staying below the NATO Article 5 threshold to avoid triggering collective defense. He described Moscow's tactics as stopping short of conventional conflict but remaining aggressive.
Recent weeks have also seen cyberattacks target refrigeration units at European grocery chains and French blood banks. These hacks forced the discard of thousands of pounds of food, though French officials said security systems prevented the loss of stored blood. No group has claimed responsibility for these digital intrusions as of Thursday.
Experts note that Russia and Iran are recruiting criminal proxies for small payouts to carry out sabotage. A group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or HAYI, has claimed many recent arson and sabotage incidents. U.K. authorities link HAYI directly to the Quds Force, which Britain designates as a terrorist organization. A member of the group told CBS News in March that they would continue threatening U.S. and Israeli interests until they had avenged victims in Gaza and Lebanon.
Barry Andrews, an Irish Member of the European Parliament, cited the Aer Lingus diversion in a social media post. He asked if anyone still denies that Ireland faces serious security threats, especially ahead of a major European summit in Dublin next week.
