A series of bomb threats forced at least 15 flights to divert or make emergency landings across Europe on Thursday morning, renewing debates about a potentially coordinated effort to disrupt travel. The warnings impacted routes connecting Italy, Ireland, the UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, and Czechia. This incident follows a busy week for aviation security, with seven planes searched or diverted on Tuesday and a single flight from the UK to Bulgaria diverted on Monday after an unsubstantiated threat.
The carriers affected by Thursday's alerts included Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, Finnair, and LOT. All aircraft landed safely, and initial inspections of several planes revealed no suspicious items. Two Ryanair flights from Copenhagen and Madrid made emergency landings in Sofia, while a Ryanair service from London was diverted to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city. A Bulgarian government spokesperson confirmed that inspections were carried out according to standard procedures and that airport operations at both Sofia and Plovdiv had returned to normal.
Other disruptions included an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome, which diverted to the Evreux-Fauville military airbase in northern France. A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was rerouted to Vienna. Additionally, a Ryanair flight from Porto and an Aegean Airlines flight from Thessaloniki, both bound for Milan, were searched upon arrival at Malpensa airport. The list of affected services also included a LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels, two Finnair flights from Helsinki to Rome and Vienna, and four other flights arriving in Prague.
Czech police stated that security measures at Prague airport had concluded with pyrotechnic inspections yielding negative results. A representative for Finnair described the threats against its flights as unfounded hoaxes, noting that while air traffic is occasionally subject to such alerts, they are almost always without merit. The airline highlighted that it had seen similar hoax threats faced by other European carriers earlier in the week.
The travel disruption occurred shortly after cyber-attacks targeted supermarket refrigeration systems. Some analysts suggest that this combination of disruptions, along with recent drone incursions and app alerts, may be part of a hybrid campaign aimed at unsettling Europe on behalf of state actors such as Iran or Russia. In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called it absurd to blame Vladimir Putin's administration for the hackers who targeted fridges, stating that the country faces baseless accusations for being implicated in everything.
Although many of the affected flights were operated by low-cost carriers, no clear pattern emerged from the incidents. The Italian news agency Ansa, citing police sources, reported that warnings for the Helsinki-Rome and Dublin-Rome flights originated from an anonymous email written in Italian. The message was sent to the Rome airport company, ADR, and other affiliates, with the subject line reading 'segnalazione minaccia,' or threat warning.
Aviation experts note that fake threats occur daily, but the high number of credible threats this week suggests coordinated action. Capt Martin Drake, a former airline pilot and technical adviser to the Balpa union, explained that airlines use a traffic-light system to assess threats. A red alert typically requires a quick descent and diversion to the nearest airport. Drake noted that at cruising altitude, aircraft pressurization would neutralize much of the force of any improvised explosive device.
While diversions are expensive and disruptive, airlines have limited options when facing credible threats. The ready availability of operational data online now gives hoaxers detailed knowledge of schedules and technical specifications that would have been insider information decades ago. Rhys Jones, an analyst at Osprey Flight Solutions, said that while the threats appeared linked, they formed a reasonably chaotic campaign with no specific regional target. He warned that such actions could weaken future security responses through normalization, even as they successfully create disruption.
Jones added that while airline confidence in European airport security should remain, the natural reaction will likely involve increased security measures, media coverage, and public concern about flying. The current wave of incidents has prompted a closer look at how these hybrid tactics are affecting the stability of the continent's air travel network.
