Bomb threats disrupt European flights as planes divert or land under heightened security
Authorities reported flight disruptions in France, Italy, Belgium and Bulgaria on Thursday, following earlier bomb threats this week that proved to be hoaxes.
By Yuki Kaminski ·
Several commercial aircraft made unscheduled landings or arrived under heightened security in Europe on Thursday, November 5, according to authorities in the countries involved. The incidents affected flights landing in France, Italy, Belgium and Bulgaria, adding to a week of disruptions involving bomb threats against passenger planes.
In France, an Airbus A320 flying from Dublin to Rome was redirected to the Evreux airbase, west of Paris, after a bomb threat. The aircraft belonged to the Aer Lingus fleet. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office announced the incident on Thursday and later confirmed that the plane had landed safely at the airfield.
Flight tracking websites showed the aircraft making a sharp change of direction while near Paris airspace. Instead of continuing toward the Italian capital, it headed for the more isolated airfield at Evreux. The French air force said it had sent aircraft after receiving the report and was escorting the diverted plane. Lecornu's office said it was following the situation as it unfolded.
The French incident was the first to become publicly known, with accounts of other disruptions emerging afterward. Another aircraft made an unscheduled landing in Bulgaria. A flight arriving from Finland reached Rome as planned, but with a military escort, while a separate flight landed in Brussels amid a security threat.
The reports followed several bomb threats against European commercial flights earlier in the week. Those earlier threats were found to be hoaxes, although they still forced aircraft to change their routes and prompted substantial security responses. In one of those cases, the Italian air force escorted an aircraft to an emergency landing.
Airlines targeted by the earlier threats included Poland's LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The new reports involved both diversions and flights that continued to their planned destinations with additional security measures.
The aviation disruptions also coincided with apparent cyberattacks affecting freezer units at major supermarkets and French bloodbanks. Whether those incidents were connected to the threats against flights remained unclear.
The cases were still at an early stage. They raised the possibility of so-called hybrid attacks, which seek to create widespread disruption using relatively limited effort and resources, but neither a connection between the incidents nor that explanation had been established.
