Europe Scrambles Fighter Jets as Flight Bomb Threats Reach a Third Day

Bomb threats hit passenger flights across Europe again on Thursday, the third day of a wave that has forced diversions, military escorts and ground searches from France to Bulgaria. No device has been found on any aircraft, no one has claimed responsibility and no government has named a culprit.

Europe Scrambles Fighter Jets as Flight Bomb Threats Reach a Third Day

London - The pattern repeated all morning: a threat passed to an airline or an airport, a sharp turn, a fighter escort, a landing, a search. By lunchtime the alerts had touched flights over France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Romania, Italy, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Denmark.

Fifteen Flights and Three Air Forces Before Lunch

By 11.20am, at least fifteen flights had been affected by bomb alerts, according to a running tally published by The Standard. The figure climbed through the morning as new diversions were confirmed.

AFP put it at "at least 14 European flights were hit by hoax bomb alerts for the third day this week". Fox News carried a lower count, at least 11 planes. The working figure is at least fourteen, with some tallies higher.

Three air forces went up. The French air force said it dispatched planes "as soon as the threat was reported" after the Dublin-Rome flight turned for Normandy. Bulgaria's air force sent MiG-29s from Graf Ignatievo Air Base at 10:11 local time. Italian fighter jets escorted a Finnair flight into Rome, an airport official said.

Searches found no explosives or suspicious items on any aircraft. No injuries have been reported.

What Happened, Flight by Flight

The Standard's list of affected flights ran across the continent. Aer Lingus EI402 from Dublin to Rome was diverted to Evreux. Ryanair FR6410 from Madrid and FR3606 from Copenhagen landed at Sofia. Ryanair FR1730 from London Stansted, which left at 6am and was due into Sofia at 9.25am GMT, landed at Plovdiv instead.

LOT Polish Airlines LO235 from Warsaw to Brussels landed in Brussels. Wizz Air W46387, Milan Malpensa to Warsaw-Okecie, was diverted to Vienna. Finnair AY1761 from Helsinki landed at Rome Fiumicino, and AY1471 to Vienna, operated by Jettime, landed normally.

Wizz Air WMT3064 from Milan to Bucharest landed with 182 passengers on board, and Bucharest Otopeni Airport said it was putting its safety protocol into practice while other flights operated as usual. Aegean A3552 from Thessaloniki to Milan and Ryanair FR8953 from Porto to Milan both landed at Milan. Four as-yet unidentified flights bound for Prague landed at Prague.

Finnair said two of its flights, AY1761 Helsinki-Rome and AY1471 Helsinki-Vienna, faced unfounded or hoax bomb threats. "Both flights landed safely at their destinations, and customers have disembarked the aircraft," the airline said. The Rome aircraft was inspected and would depart back to Helsinki; the Vienna flight would "return to traffic normally after inspection". An emailed bomb threat had been received, police bomb disposal procedures were completed and no explosives were found.

Evreux: The Loop, the Emergency, the Bomb Disposal Team

Aer Lingus flight EI402 declared an in-flight emergency, Sky News reported, and flight-tracking sites showed the aircraft approaching Paris before it turned sharply off its trajectory and made several loops before heading toward Evreux.

The French prime minister's office said the Dublin-Rome flight was diverted to the Evreux military air base in Normandy after a bomb threat and landed safely. All 151 passengers and six crew members were safe, and military bomb disposal teams were examining the plane. The office said it was following the situation in real time.

The French air force said: "The aircraft has been diverted and is being escorted to the Evreux airfield" west of Paris.

Aer Lingus said: "Aer Lingus flight EI402 from Dublin to Rome diverted to Normandy this morning as a security precaution. The flight landed safely and Aer Lingus will work to reaccommodate customers to their final destination as soon as possible."

Sofia, Plovdiv and the MiG-29s

Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia were targeted, from Madrid, Copenhagen and London Stansted, Bulgaria's transport ministry confirmed through a spokesperson.

Bulgaria's air force said MiG-29 fighter jets took off from Graf Ignatievo Air Base at 10:11 local time (08:11 GMT) to "intercept and escort the civilian aircraft". It called the operation an "air policing" mission, and said such missions "detect, identify and escort the aircraft".

"One landed at Plovdiv Airport, and the other two at Vasil Levski Airport in Sofia," the air force said. The transport ministry said the Madrid flight landed at 10:15 and the Copenhagen flight at 10:19. The Stansted flight put down at Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, according to Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev.

All three were later inspected and no explosives were found, an interior ministry spokesperson told AFP.

Prague: Four Planes and an Assessment of Low

Czech police said they received a threat about four aircraft heading to Prague, deployed officers to Vaclav Havel Airport and searched the planes after landing.

The police statement read: "Upon receiving a threat regarding the placement of an improvised explosive device on board 4 aircraft heading to Prague". Officers worked with colleagues at Prague Airport for the landings.

Police assessed the credibility of the threats as low. "Nevertheless, we are not underestimating the threat, which is why all necessary security measures have been activated with minimal impact on passengers and airport operations," the statement said. "After landing, all aircraft will undergo pyrotechnic inspections."

The searches found nothing. The CTK news agency quoted a police spokesperson saying explosives tests yielded negative results. Police did not give details on where the flights originated, and the airport continued operating through the checks.

A Runway at Chopin and Vienna's Abstract Threat

A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna after a mail to Polish authorities containing an "abstract threat", said Stefan Loidl, police spokesperson in Lower Austria province. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw. The aircraft was the Wizz Air Milan-Warsaw service, W46387.

Loidl said there was also an abstract threat to Vienna Airport concerning four other flights, which he declined to identify. Operations were not disrupted.

In Poland, authorities checked a LOT flight about to depart Warsaw for Paris on Thursday morning after a threat was reported at Warsaw's Chopin Airport, airport spokesman Piotr Rudzki said. No threat was ultimately identified. One runway at Chopin was temporarily closed while standard security procedures were carried out.

LOT's Warsaw-Brussels flight LO235 landed at Brussels, and inspections found no hazardous or suspicious items, the airline said.

Nobody Has Claimed It, and No Government Has Named Anyone

No one has claimed responsibility for any of the alerts this week, and no government has attributed blame.

"There is no confirmed link between any of the threats, either from Tuesday or today," the BBC reported. "But authorities from various countries have been co-operating to assess whether this is a co-ordinated attack."

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told broadcasters she was aware that "a small number of flights across Europe have been disrupted", and that there are "established processes for dealing with hoax and malicious threats, and that's what these threats have". She said the government takes the threats seriously.

Eurocontrol, the European coordinator of air traffic, said it was monitoring the situation and working closely with airlines, airports and air navigation service providers, Bloomberg reported. Ryanair did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Brussels Airport spokespeople told Belgian media no additional security measures were necessary.

This Is the Third Day, Not One Bad Morning

Monday 2 November was day one. A Wizz Air flight from London's Luton airport to Sofia was diverted because of a bomb threat and made an emergency stop in Budapest, AFP reported.

Tuesday 3 November was day two. At least seven flights across Europe were searched, diverted or escorted after hoax bomb threats, the BBC reported. Two flights were searched after landing in Rome, two in Warsaw, two in Sofia and one in Murcia, Spain. Two took off from the UK, one from Heathrow and one from Manchester. Ryanair, Wizz Air, Scandinavian Airlines and LOT were affected.

A Khaleej Times report put Tuesday's figure at "some 10 European flights were targeted by bomb threats on Tuesday".

In Poland that day, a morning LOT flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin was diverted to Modlin Airport, which closed briefly. Italian air force planes were scrambled in Rome. The UK government called those incidents "malicious hoax threats".

The Hybrid-Warfare Case, and the Professor Who Says It Is Mostly Fun

Ben Smith, chief executive of Air France-KLM, said on a call with journalists about third-quarter earnings: "To have this in a coordinated way, I don't think we've seen this before." He added: "It's unfortunate and we hope it won't give our consumers any reason to slow down or reduce their travel plan."

Matthew Borie, co-founder and chief intelligence officer of Osprey Flight Solutions, said the focus on Europe means "there could be a Russian angle". He added: "We need to keep in mind, though, that Iranian hybrid warfare is just as active in certain pockets of Europe as well."

Eric Schouten, head of aviation security group Dyami, told Reuters that attacks stretching "from railroads to food infrastructure", including the refrigerator hacking, were "consistent with moves by Russian state actors to disrupt Europe".

Philip Baum, visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University, told The Guardian: "Most are done for fun or by individuals trying to delay a flight for whatever reason." He added: "Terror groups that actually intend to smuggle a bomb onto an aircraft do not give prior notice and only claim responsibility after the attack."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday it was "absurd" to blame Vladimir Putin's administration, citing "such baseless accusations against our country, implicating it in everything". Moscow and Tehran both deny any hybrid or sabotage campaign.

Thirty Thousand Flights a Day and What the Record Actually Shows

Europe's skies carry more than 30,000 flights a day, Bloomberg reported. Set against that, one morning of hoaxes involves a small number of aircraft, however loud the escort.

Getting illegal items on board is extremely difficult. Airports are ring-fenced and passenger screening has become more sophisticated. Aircraft disasters involving a bomb are exceedingly rare.

They are not unknown. Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988, killing all 259 people on board. A Russian passenger plane was brought down by an explosive device over Egypt's Sinai peninsula in 2015, killing all 224 people on board.

Wizz Air said Tuesday that authorities were first notified about the threats and passed the alert to the airline, which then followed protocol.

Three days in, there is no device, no claim of responsibility and no named culprit. No deaths and no injuries have been reported.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Bloomberg, BBC News, Sky News, The Guardian, The Standard, Al Jazeera, CTK, Khaleej Times and the Bulgarian, Czech, French, Polish and UK authorities cited above. Photographs: Thomas Padilla/AP; Stoyan Nenov/Reuters; Piotr Bozyk/Reuters. Cover: Global 1 News editorial image.