EU activates aviation security exchange as false bomb threats hit flights across Europe

Threats across Europe

A new wave of bomb threats hit passenger flights and airports on Thursday, 5 November, with at least 12 flights and airports in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain affected, according to one count. Reuters put the figure at no fewer than 25 commercial flights, and several aircraft were diverted while others were escorted by military jets. The alerts followed a round of similar incidents on Tuesday. Every alert was later found to be false.

Two landings in Bucharest

Bucharest's Henri Coandă airport handled two of the threats. A Wizz Air flight WMT3064 from Milan carried 182 passengers and seven crew, and the crew alerted the control tower about a threat before the aircraft landed safely at around 11:08, prompting a crisis cell at the airport. A pyrotechnic team from the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) checked the aircraft and found nothing suspicious. Later, an Air Serbia flight JU102 from Belgrade, which BoardingPass reported had been targeted, landed at 15:20 and was held on a taxiway a few hundred metres from its parking positions while crews checked it. The Bucharest airport operator then issued a statement on the outcome.

“The checks have already been completed, and no elements were identified that confirm the existence of a real threat.”

Airport traffic continued under the flight plans, according to the same statement, and the operator said aircraft were taking off and landing as scheduled.

Wizz Air, Milan-Bucharest182

Aer Lingus, Dublin-Rome151

Wizz Air, Milan-Bucharest

182 passengers

Aer Lingus, Dublin-Rome

151 passengers

Data from the article text

Diversions in France, Italy, Austria and Bulgaria

An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 flying from Dublin to Rome, with 151 passengers and six crew, was diverted to the Évreux air base in northern France after a bomb threat, and French air force jets escorted it to a safe landing. The office of French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu said the situation was monitored in real time under security procedures. In Italy, a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome was escorted by Italian military jets. A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was diverted to Vienna, and three Ryanair flights bound for Bulgaria's capital were targeted by similar threats. Alerts were also reported in Spain, Belgium and Czechia. Italian local press reported alerts for two flights to Rome and from Milan, while Flightradar24 showed that no aircraft had departed Rome's Fiumicino airport at the time, with the cause of the disruption unknown.

Rome emails and a claimed group

Authorities at Rome's airports said a threat against two flights due to land there arrived by email, with the subject line 'threat notification'. Accounts differ on timing: one says the email arrived on Wednesday morning, 4 November, while another describes it as received on Thursday morning. The emails were signed in the name of alleged 'Male State Fighters', who said they targeted a 'feminist regime' and wanted to leave their mark on history, threatening to 'paint the sky red' with explosions. Those details were first reported by the Italian press and then confirmed by phone to the BBC by Aeroporti di Roma, which runs both of the city's airports. The Male State, described as a Russian far-right extremist movement of men that promotes patriarchal ideology, was founded in 2016 by Vladislav Pozdniakov. The group has been associated with harassment and online threats against women, minorities and LGBTQ+ people, and it claimed responsibility for the bomb threats against European airports and aircraft.

EU response and open investigations

On Thursday the European Union activated its aviation security information exchange mechanism. Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the EU commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism, told a press conference in Dublin that it was too early to say whether the incidents were connected, and that nothing so far pointed to a cyberattack. He said the EU was monitoring the situation and staying in contact with affected member states. He also discussed the possible implications for aviation safety with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) the same day. Responsibility for threat assessment, incident investigation and aviation security measures lies mainly with national authorities, working with airport operators, airlines and law enforcement, and national investigations are still under way.