Heidi Alexander said bomb threats on flights across Europe were malicious hoax threats
after at least 18 flights were reported affected on the same day. Passengers faced diversions, escorts and evacuations, and the cases described ended without explosives being found.
The disruption spread across Rome, Sofia, Prague, Madrid, Warsaw and Dublin-linked travel, making it the second time this week that flights across Europe were hit by similar threats. On Tuesday, at least seven flights were affected in the earlier wave.
Rome, Sofia and Prague
Authorities in Rome said they received an email threat from a group called Fighters of the Male State
, which claimed to be targeting a feminist regime
. An aircraft was escorted into Rome Fiumicino Airport by Italian Air Force jets, while the Bulgarian military said its jets escorted three aircraft to Sofia.
In Prague, Czech police said no explosives were found aboard four flights after threats about an improvised explosive device
. All four flights to Prague landed with no explosives found, and local media said the four flights had departed from Greece, Ireland and two from the UK.
LOT Polish Airlines and Aer Lingus
LOT Polish Airlines said two of its planes were affected, and one plane was stopped while taxiing and directed to a designated parking stand after reports of a potential security threat
. LOT said no hazardous items were found
and that passengers would continue their journey on a different aircraft.
Passengers and Aer Lingus flights also felt the disruption. One Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a French air base before passengers disembarked, while Spain's airport authority said bomb threats affected three flights at Madrid airport on Thursday and that the threat was ruled out after inspections.
Europe's same-day security checks
The pattern across Europe is unusually broad because the reports arrived on the same day and crossed multiple airports and airlines rather than staying inside one national system. That left airport teams, police and military units handling the immediate response in parallel, from diversion and escort procedures to checks on grounded aircraft.
Heidi Alexander's description of the threats as hoaxes matches what the first wave of checks showed: authorities in several countries reported no explosives found in the incidents described. The unresolved issue is who sent the threats and whether the cases are connected, while investigators continue checking the flights and messages behind them.
