Bomb threats force emergency landings of planes across Europe

In Europe, several planes in a row made emergency landings after bomb threats. The threats concerned flights in Bulgaria, Poland, Spain and Hungary. Passengers were evacuated and the aircraft were searched by specialists.

Sofia, Warsaw and Murcia

A plane from Israel was checked by counter-terrorism units at Sofia airport. According to Lyubomir Nikolov of Bulgaria's Ministry of the Interior, it was a check for possible explosive devices. The threat, he said, arrived by email.

Earlier, a Boeing 737 MAX flying from London Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin Airport had to land at Warsaw's Modlin airport because of a bomb threat. According to an airport press release on Facebook, there were 181 people on board and about 3.7 tonnes of fuel left in the tanks. All passengers were evacuated and the plane was searched by specialists.

In the morning, a bomb report also came in for a flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw. According to a Polish TV channel, after landing at Chopin Airport, staff evacuated the passengers and inspected the fuselage of the SAS aircraft.

The airport in Murcia, Spain, also activated its security protocol on Tuesday over a suspected bomb. The flight in question was FR4116 from Manchester in Britain. According to British media, the plane was directed to a designated secure area away from the main terminal, where it was checked by bomb disposal experts and security forces. Passengers waited in the arrivals hall for the inspection to finish.

Unclear whether anything was found

It is not yet known whether an explosive device was found on any of the planes.

On Monday, an Airbus A321neo flying from London to Sofia also made an emergency landing. It was escorted to Budapest's Ferenc Liszt airport by Hungarian Air Force Gripen fighter jets. Firefighters, police and a counter-terrorism unit waited for the plane on the apron. Their intervention was ultimately not needed, but one runway was closed during the operation. The check did not confirm any explosives on board, and the plane was able to continue its journey.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz