Seven Flights Targeted By Suspected Bomb Threats in Europe Within Hours

Seven passenger planes were targeted by suspected bomb threats in Europe within hours of each other on Tuesday, less than a day after another flight was forced to divert because of an alert. Planes landing in Poland, Spain Italy and Bulgaria were all impacted in separate incidents, although all seven were later declared to be safe.

The first bomb threat on Tuesday was announced on board a LOT Polish airlines flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin Airport. The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft landed at Modlin airport in the Polish capital at 10.01 a.m. local time. Chopin is within the city limits ⁠and Modlin is about 22 miles from the capital. The threat was later called off.

An SAS flight from Copenhagen in Denmark to Chopin airport also faced a bomb threat but landed as normal on Tuesday, according to Danish media. The airline said in a statement, cited by other media, that the flight had landed safely and passengers disembarked. Polish authorities later said the threat was not confirmed.

Modlin Airport, which had closed while the incident was dealt with, later reopened. A Warsaw-Chopin airport spokesperson told Reuters the ​airport was continuing operations.

In Italy, a Ryanair flight from Lisbon landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Tuesday morning after an email claimed a bomb was on board, according to an unnamed official speaking to The Associated Press. No explosives were found after a search by bomb disposal experts.

Another Ryanair flight, from Dublin, was escorted to Fiumicino by Italy’s air force but no explosives were discovered, the official said.

In Bulgaria, Transport Minister Georgi Peev told Bulgarian News Agency that bomb threats were received against two aircraft, one from Bergamo and the other from Dublin, but no explosives were found. Bulgarian media had earlier reported one of the planes had arrived from Israel. Authorities did not initially disclose details of the airlines or the number of passengers involved.

Meanwhile, a Ryanair plane which had departed from Manchester, England, made an emergency landing at Murcia airport in southern Spain, following another threat.

It was not immediately clear if the incidents on Tuesday were linked. They came a day after a Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Sofia; Bulgaria made an emergency landing in Budapest after a bomb threat. The airline said afterward that security checks found it was a false alarm.

Last month, an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna was diverted to Sofia following a bomb threat. Bulgarian MiG-29 fighter jets escorted the aircraft on October 18 but the plane continued to Vienna after checks found no threat.