European Skies On High Alert: Multiple Flights Diverted, Forced To Make Emergency Landings Following Bomb Threats

Several flights across Europe were forced to make emergency landings on Thursday morning following bomb threats, marking the latest incident in a series of security alerts targeting aircraft across the continent. Aer Lingus flight EI402, travelling from Dublin to Rome, was diverted and landed safely at Evreux Airport, around 100 kilometres west of Paris, as a security precaution, the Irish airline confirmed in a statement.

Meanwhile, Belgian media reported that another aircraft, which was forced to land at Brussels' Zaventem Airport, belonged to Polish carrier LOT.

Nothing found

Finnair said that Flight 1761 from Helsinki to Rome was targeted by a bomb threat, but nothing out of the ordinary was found on the plane after it landed normally in the Italian capital, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported. Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, had to make emergency landings because of bomb threats on board. Two of the flights, one from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other from Madrid, landed safely at Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport, airport officials told reporters.

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The third flight, from London's Stansted Airport to Sofia, had been diverted and landed safely at the airport in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said. Separately, a flight from Ireland to Italy was diverted to a military air base in western France on Thursday because of a bomb threat, the French prime minister's office said.

Flights landed safely

The flight landed safely at the base in Evreux in Normandy, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office said. All 151 passengers and six crew members are safe and military bomb defusal teams are examining the plane. The prime minister's office said that it's following the situation in real time. No other information was immediately released.

Flight tracking sites showed that the Aer Lingus Dublin-Rome flight was approaching Paris when it turned sharply off its trajectory and made several loops before heading toward Evreux. Several flights across Europe received hoax bomb threats this week that prompted searches, diversions and, in one case, an escort by the Italian air force until landing, officials said.

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The flights included Polish airline LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The hoax threats came a day after a plane headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in the air. No one was injured.

Such threats aren't a new phenomenon but come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and signs of "disruption," like attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions in Europe and mysterious triggers to alert apps - even as authorities have warned that hybrid threats abound.

(With inputs from Agency)

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