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More than a dozen planes flying in Europe received reports of bombs on board on Thursday. No explosive devices were found on them, but at least three flights were forced to land at airports other than their destination airport. This is the second time in a week that there have been widespread reports of bombs on board passenger planes.
Reports of bombs on board on Thursday, November 5, were received by three Ryanair aircraft flying to the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia: FR6410 from Madrid, FR3606 from Copenhagen and FR1730 from London (Stansted Airport). To escort the planes, MiG-29 fighters of the Bulgarian Air Force took off.
The flight from London, by decision of the airline and crew, was redirected to Plovdiv, the other two landed as planned, the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport reported.
No explosive devices were found on any of the planes.
The flight of the Irish airline Aer Lingus from Dublin to Rome, which received threats, also changed its route: the plane landed at the Evreux military airfield in northern France. The plane was accompanied by a Rafale fighter, Figaro writes, and the French authorities received a message about the threat from their Italian partners, BFMTV reports.
WizzAir flight W46387 from Milan-Malpensa to Warsaw Chopin Airport was redirected to Vienna, and W43064 from the same Malpensa to Bucharest landed as planned.
Bombs were also reported on FinnAir flights AY1761 (from Helsinki to Fiumicino in Rome) and AY1471 (from Helsinki to Vienna), Polish LOT LO235 (from Warsaw to Brussels), Greek Aegean Airlines A3552 (from Thessaloniki to Milan Malpensa) and another Ryanair flight FR8953 from Porto to Milan-Malpensa.
They all landed at their destination airports.
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In addition, four planes flying to Prague also received reports of bombs. The police examined them upon arrival and found no explosive devices; It is not specified which flights we are talking about.
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It is unclear who is behind the messages. Details about who exactly received the bomb messages were also not disclosed. On Tuesday, Bulgarian Interior Ministry spokesman Lyubomir Nikolov said that the threats were received by email and concerned not only aircraft, but also “various institutions.”
The Italian agency ANSA, citing sources close to the investigation, writes that the bombs on board the FinnAir flight from Helsinki to Rome and the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome were reported in one anonymous email.
The letter, written in Italian, arrived early on Thursday morning on the emails of Rome airport operator Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) and other companies operating at Fiumicino airport. The title of the letter was “message of threat” (segnalazione minaccia). Letters warning of bombs on Ryanair flights to Rome earlier this week were also written in Italian, ANSA said.
The BBC's ADR confirmed it had received a letter containing a "message of threat". It was signed by “fighters of the male state” who are fighting the “feminist regime” and want to “leave their mark on history.” In the email, they threaten to "paint the sky red" by blowing up planes.
Aviation expert Marco Chan told the BBC that the bomb reports were "probably fake, but it's right that they be treated as if they were real." He notes that sending such threats is cheap, but the consequences for airlines, airports and the Air Force are costly.
“This asymmetry is the point of these tactics, whatever the motive,” Chan says. It is difficult to say whether the bomb messages sent this week are coordinated or the work of copycats, he adds.
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