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Several bomb threats have forced airliners to make unplanned landings across Europe, days after a series of similar threats forced several planes to divert and an airport in Poland to close.
Approximately 10 flights have had threats made against them on Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Frances Read said, reporting from London.
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An airliner flying from Dublin to Rome was rerouted to France, where it was escorted by military aircraft after a suspected bomb threat, French authorities said.
France’s air force said it had dispatched planes “as soon as the threat was reported”.
“The aircraft has been diverted and is being escorted to the Evreux airfield” west of Paris, it added.
The office of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said a bomb squad was in place at the airport and that 151 Aer Lingus passengers and six crew were moved to safety.
No one claimed responsibility, and officials did not attribute blame.
According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft turned near Paris and was circling over the Evreux area after declaring an in-flight emergency.
In a separate incident, Bulgaria reported that three aircrafts requested emergency landings due to bomb threats, according to local media.
Airplanes flying from Denmark’s capital Copenhagen and Spain’s capital Madrid landed in Sofia, the Bulgarian interior minister said, according to broadcaster bTV.
Four airplanes heading to Prague also received bomb threats, and authorities were preparing for their landing, Czech police said on X, adding they 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,” police said. “After landing, all aircraft will undergo pyrotechnic inspections.”
In Belgium, Polish airlines LOT said that a flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed safely at its destination after a security warning.
“Following receipt of information regarding a potential security threat to flight LO235 from Warsaw to Brussels, the flight crew was notified of the situation and conducted an onboard inspection in accordance with established procedures. No suspicious items were found,” a LOT spokesperson said.
The aircraft landed at Brussels’ Zaventem airport, where security services carried out an additional inspection of the plane; this also revealed no dangerous or suspicious items. Spokespeople for the airport said no additional security measures were necessary.
Separately, a Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was re-routed to Vienna on Thursday after a hoax bomb threat was reported, the airline said. “The diversion was carried out in accordance with established safety protocols and procedures,” Wizz Air said in a statement.
Another hoax bomb alert reported on Finnish flag carrier Finnair’s flight from Helsinki to Rome was escorted to the Italian capital by a fighter jet and was checked by bomb disposal experts, an airport spokesman told the AFP news agency.
Elsewhere, a spokesperson for Finnair said a threat was made against its Helsinki-Vienna flight operated by Jettime on Thursday. The plane landed normally in Vienna.
The incidents come after several European flights were targeted by bomb threats on Tuesday, prompting emergency searches, briefly shut down an airport outside the Polish capital, Warsaw, and led the Italian Air Force to escort a Ryanair plane into Rome.
At least seven flights and a cruise shop were affected by the threats but no devices were discovered.
