Seven false bomb alarms hit European flights, two at Rome Fiumicino

Seven alarms, all false

Seven bomb alarms were reported on passenger flights in Europe on 3 November, and all of them proved unfounded. The updated tally, cited by Il Sole 24 ORE from the Guardian, places the cases in Italy, Bulgaria, Spain and Poland. Security checks followed each one, and in some cases flights were diverted and airport operations were briefly halted. No explosives were found anywhere. A separate alarm had come earlier, on the evening of Monday, 2 November, when a Wizz Air flight from London Luton made an emergency landing in Budapest. After checks found nothing, the plane continued to Sofia.

Rome Fiumicino

Two Ryanair flights were targeted at Rome Fiumicino after an anonymous email reached ADR, the airport operator, claiming explosives were on board flights from Lisbon and Dublin. The Lisbon flight landed at about 9.40 and the Dublin flight at 10.44. Security teams checked the aircraft, passengers and baggage, and bomb disposal officers searched both planes. Operations ended shortly after noon without anything being found. Italian Air Force fighter jets flew up to escort the aircraft, though accounts differ on whether one or both flights were escorted. ADR told Fanpage.it that passengers faced no disruption.

Murcia, Warsaw and Sofia

In Spain, a Ryanair flight from Manchester made an emergency landing at Murcia at about 10.30. Francisco Lucas, the Spanish government's delegate in Murcia, reported on X that the 114 passengers and seven crew members had been evacuated and were undergoing security checks. Some reports put the number on board at 121, including crew. Air traffic at the airport stopped for about two hours before reopening at 13:00, and a Gran Canaria flight was diverted to Alicante. In Poland, the BBC reported that two passenger aircraft were inspected in Warsaw. A flight from London Heathrow with 181 people on board was diverted to Warsaw Modlin, while a Copenhagen flight to Warsaw Chopin landed normally before checks, after Danish media reported a similar threat. In Bulgaria, reports say a flight from Israel made an emergency landing in Sofia, where anti-terrorism squads attended. The Guardian, however, counted two Ryanair flights from Lisbon and Dublin bound for Sofia, and the accounts do not match.

Investigation and open questions

Authorities investigating the episode described it as highly unusual, according to Il Giornale. Polaria and the postal police are investigating the anonymous email. Tgcom24 reports that a common origin for the episodes is increasingly suspected. Investigative sources cited by the same outlet said no links to similar episodes in other European cities had emerged so far.