Photo taken on June 8, 2020 shows a plane of British Airways landing at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua/IANS)
London, November 5 (IANS): More than a dozen passenger flights across Europe received bomb threats on Thursday, forcing several aircraft to divert and prompting security checks at airports in multiple countries, according to local media reports and airline statements.
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 travelling from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military airbase in Evreux, France, following a bomb alert. The aircraft landed safely, and all 151 passengers and six crew members were moved to safety while military bomb disposal teams inspected the plane, according to the office of French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu.
In Bulgaria, three Ryanair flights bound for the capital Sofia received bomb threats on Thursday morning, local broadcaster bTV reported. Flights from Copenhagen and Madrid landed safely in Sofia, while a flight from London Stansted Airport was diverted to Plovdiv Airport. Security checks found no dangerous objects on board the aircraft, according to the broadcaster.
In Poland, a Paris-bound LOT Polish Airlines plane was stopped while taxiing at Warsaw Chopin Airport following a report of a potentially dangerous object onboard. Flight LO331 was moved to a designated parking stand for inspection, and one runway was temporarily closed. No dangerous items were found, and airport operations subsequently returned to normal, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Another LOT flight, traveling from Warsaw to Brussels, also received a security threat. The aircraft landed at Brussels Airport, where additional inspections found no suspicious items, the airline said.
A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was diverted to Vienna following a bomb threat. Two Finnair flights departing from Helsinki, bound for Rome and Vienna respectively, were also targeted. Both landed safely, with the Rome-bound aircraft escorted by Italian military jets.
In Romania, a Wizz Air flight from Milan landed safely at Bucharest's Henri Coanda International Airport following a bomb threat. The 182 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated while security personnel inspected the aircraft, Romanian public radio reported.
Czech police also reported bomb threats against four aircraft heading to Prague. Police assessed the threats as having low credibility but activated security measures and arranged inspections of the aircraft upon landing.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Thursday it would continue to monitor developments and assess potential aviation safety implications following the bomb threats against multiple passenger aircraft in Europe.
In an emailed response to Xinhua, EASA said it would "continue to monitor these developments to identify and assess any potential aviation safety implications arising from such security threats."
Europol Deputy Spokesperson Claire Georges told Xinhua in an email on the same day that the agency stood ready to support national authorities, at their request, where threats were linked to serious organised crime or terrorism, including by facilitating information exchange and identifying possible links across countries.
The incidents followed a series of similar alerts across Europe on Tuesday when at least seven passenger flights and a cruise ship received bomb threats. The affected flights included two bound for Warsaw, two for Rome, two for Sofia and one for Murcia in Spain, while a cruise ship bound for Israel was searched after a bomb threat at the Greek island of Syros.
