Hoax bomb threats on Friday disrupted at least 18 flights across Europe, but every affected aircraft landed safely and searches found no explosive devices. The threats hit routes linked to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and the UK, with passengers and crews still dealing with the knock-on disruption.
At least nine flights to and from Prague were affected, four flights over France were hit, and two flights en route to Sofia were disrupted. A flight from Lisbon to Rome was also affected, while Hungary scrambled fighter jets three times to escort civilian flights in its airspace.
Micheál Martin on RTÉ Radio 1
Micheál Martin, the taoiseach, said on RTÉ Radio 1 after it resumed scheduled broadcasting: "It shows how relatively simple it can be to cause disruption and undermine the normal operation of society," That warning fits the scale of the day: 18 flights sounds limited against Europe’s 26,709 scheduled flights on Friday, but it still forced checks across several countries and added pressure to already busy air traffic systems.
The latest threats followed separate ones on Tuesday and Thursday that forced at least 35 flights to be diverted or searched. Together, the incidents point to a pattern of repeated disruption rather than a single isolated scare, which is why investigators are treating the Friday wave alongside earlier events.
Europe aviation security response
Danish police investigated a threat against Copenhagen airport on Friday, while the airport’s management said it was operating normally. A separate spate of threats against media organisations in Ireland disrupted broadcasts and prompted staff evacuations and police searches of offices and newsrooms, and Sky said it had also received a security threat and reported it to the relevant authorities.
A group claiming responsibility reportedly sent an email to several media outlets warning of further attacks on transport across Europe, saying, "This is only the beginning," Investigators said there was no evidence that the hoaxes were being orchestrated by a hostile terror group or state actor, even as the threats were described as apparently coordinated. In a broader comment on the recent wave of threats and cyber-attacks, Giorgia Meloni said: "But they definitely all tell us the same thing: today, what is under attack are civilian infrastructures."
Investigations are continuing, and the open question is who sent the warnings and whether that email is credible. For passengers, the immediate reality is that the flights landed safely, no explosives were found, and the disruption came from repeated threat assessments rather than any device discovered on board.
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