Published on •Updated
Four passenger flights heading to Poland, Spain and Bulgaria were the target of bomb threats on Tuesday. All of them landed safely and no explosives were found, authorities said.
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Two of the threats involved flights heading for Warsaw. The first was SAS Scandinavian Airlines flight SK751 from Copenhagen, which landed normally at the Polish capital’s main Chopin airport. One runway there was closed while the aircraft was searched.
“The aircraft landed normally in Warsaw and the passengers have disembarked,” the Scandinavian carrier said after confirming a threat had been made against the flight.
The second was a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 737 MAX flying from London Heathrow. It had been due at Chopin but was diverted to Warsaw Modlin, the city’s second airport, which was closed after the alert.
“The passengers were evacuated and the plane underwent security checks. Nothing was found,” Modlin spokesman Adam Szablowski told AFP, adding that the airport had since reopened and was operating normally.
In Spain, airport operator Aena activated an emergency protocol “due to a bomb alert” on a Ryanair flight from Manchester, in northwest England, to Murcia in the country’s southeast. The plane landed without incident, and the emergency plan was stood down after the Civil Guard had checked the aircraft.
The fourth flight was a Wizz Air service from Bergamo in northern Italy. It was inspected after landing in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, at 10:10 CET, according to a spokesperson for Bulgaria’s interior ministry.
The threats came a day after NATO’s air defence alert service raised the alarm over another Wizz Air flight, which was flying from London Luton to Sofia. That plane was diverted and made an emergency landing in Budapest.
“The Hungarian Defence Forces’ Gripen fighter jets took to the air within minutes and ensured the safe landing of the passenger aircraft in Budapest,” Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said on Facebook.
On Sunday, an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna was also rerouted to Bulgaria after a bomb threat. Nothing was found on board.
Additional sources • AFP
