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Bomb threat diverts Dublin-Rome flight to France

New bomb threats bring more disruption to flights across Europe | Aviation News

Several bomb threats have forced airliners to make unplanned landings across Europe, days after a ⁠⁠series of similar threats forced several flight diversions and the closure of an airport in Poland.

About 12 flights were subject to threats on Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Frances Read said, reporting from London.

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An Aer Lingus flight 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 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 aircraft had requested emergency landings due to bomb threats, according to local media.

Planes flying from Denmark’s capital Copenhagen and Spain’s capital Madrid ⁠⁠landed in Sofia, the Bulgarian interior minister said, ⁠⁠according to broadcaster bTV.

Bulgaria’s transport minister said inspections carried out on the three aircrafts identified no issues.

⁠Four ⁠⁠airplanes heading to Prague also received bomb threats. Czech police said all aircrafts underwent ‌‌pyrotechnic inspections, which yielded negative results. “The investigation of the threats has been taken over by NCTEKK [the National Centre against Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime] and currently no further information can be provided,” it said on X.

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In Belgium, ⁠⁠LOT Polish Airlines ⁠⁠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. No dangerous ‌‌or ‌‌suspicious items were found, while 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 was reported on a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome that was escorted to the Italian capital by a fighter jet and checked by bomb disposal experts, an airport spokesman told the AFP news agency.

Elsewhere, a spokesperson for the Finnish carrier said a threat was made against its Helsinki-Vienna flight operated by Jettime on Thursday. The plane landed in Vienna without incident.

The disruption comes after several European flights were targeted by bomb threats on Tuesday, prompting emergency searches, briefly shutting down an airport outside the Polish capital, Warsaw, and leading the Italian Air Force to escort a Ryanair plane into Rome.

At least seven flights and a cruise ship ⁠ ⁠were affected by the threats, but no devices ⁠⁠were discovered.

Al Jazeera’s Read said “there is no indication of who would be behind this, but there is a wider context in a time of geopolitical tension.”

“We’ve seen cyberattacks on other things, like a hack on supermarket refrigerators which turned up the temperature to spoil food in supermarkets across Europe, and we’ve seen drone incursions as well,” the correspondent said.

The German government has blamed Russia for a failed drone attack on Leipzig airport in August.

While there is no evidence linking the recent bomb threats to these previous attacks, “that is realistically what European governments will be looking at,” Read added.

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