At least 10 European flights were hit by bomb threats on Tuesday, forcing the brief closure of a Warsaw airport and the scrambling of air force jets in Rome before every plane landed safely and searches found no explosives.
The coordinated wave of false alarms struck carriers across the continent within hours of each other, according to IOL, with Irish budget airline Ryanair the worst hit. Four of its flights, bound for Rome, Sofia and Murcia, all received warnings.
A day of disruption across European airports
The first alert came before dawn. Italian air force jets were scrambled to escort Ryanair flight FR9611 from Dublin as it landed at Rome-Fiumicino at 10:45 am local time, Rome Airport said in a statement. Anti-bomb procedures had already been applied to an earlier Ryanair arrival at 9:40 am.
“Checks on passengers, luggage and the plane were all negative and the alert was lifted,” the statement added.
Two warnings targeted planes heading to Warsaw: an SAS flight from Copenhagen and a LOT Polish Airlines service from Heathrow. The SAS plane landed safely at Warsaw's Chopin airport, where one runway was closed for a security inspection. The LOT flight was diverted to Warsaw Modlin, which was shut down entirely following the alert.
“Nothing was found,” Modlin airport spokesman Adam Szablowski told AFP.
British police confirmed their own caseload. London's Metropolitan Police said it was made aware of threats against four aircraft due to depart from or arrive at Heathrow, with a further warning concerning a flight at Manchester Airport. After checks, no security issues were identified, the force said.
The pattern stretched across the continent. A Wizz Air flight from Bergamo was inspected after landing in Sofia at 0910 GMT, a Bulgarian interior ministry spokesperson told AFP. Spain's airport operator Aena activated an emergency protocol for a Ryanair flight from Manchester that landed at Murcia at 10:30 am. Ryanair services from Lisbon to Rome, Dublin to Rome and Dublin to Sofia also received warnings.
There was a maritime echo of the same menace. A Panama-flagged cruise ship, the Crown Iris, was evacuated late Tuesday on the Greek island of Syros after a bomb threat, the Greek coastguard said. The vessel, carrying around 1,500 passengers and crew and bound for Haifa in Israel, resumed its journey after no device was found.
Second day of threats
Tuesday's alerts followed a similar incident on Monday, when fighter jets were scrambled over a Wizz Air flight from London's Luton airport to Sofia. That plane was diverted and forced to make an emergency stop in Budapest.
Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said on Facebook that NATO's air defence alert service had issued the warning for the flight. “The Hungarian Defence Forces' Gripen fighter jets took to the air within minutes and ensured the safe landing of the passenger aircraft in Budapest,” he said.
International outlets confirmed the scale of the disruption. NBC News reported at least four flights were subjected to threats on Tuesday after one on Monday, while the BBC counted seven passenger planes inspected across Europe, two of them departing from UK airports. The Guardian confirmed the threats stretched to at least two flights each to Warsaw, Sofia and Rome, plus one to Murcia, and that all proved to be false alarms.
What the wave of false alarms tells us
No group has claimed responsibility and no device has been found, but the precision of the operation deserves attention. Whoever sent these warnings knew flight numbers, routes and arrival times. They forced three governments to scramble military jets, closed two Polish airports and emptied a cruise ship, all without planting a single explosive.
That asymmetry matters. A handful of anonymous messages, likely sent with minimal resources, consumed thousands of hours of state capacity across at least six countries. Airports in Rome, Warsaw, Sofia, Madrid's region, Manchester and London all went into emergency mode. NATO's air defence network was activated twice in two days.
For African travellers and airlines watching from the outside, the episode also carries a lesson. Europe's security machinery, for all its sophistication and its long lectures to the rest of the world about aviation safety, can be tied in knots by threats alone. The continent that screens African passengers with extra scrutiny and subjects our airports to endless audits spent Tuesday chasing shadows across its own runways.
Aviation security is a shared global concern, and threats like these are a menace wherever they occur. But the double standard is hard to miss. When a threat lands in Warsaw or Rome, it is treated as a criminal nuisance. When similar disruptions touch African airspace, European capitals are quick to question the competence of our institutions.
Investigations are now underway in Poland, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece and the United Kingdom. The priority for authorities there is tracing the source of the messages. For the rest of us, the reminder is simpler: security threats cross borders easily, and so should honest assessments of who is vulnerable to them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Were any explosives found on the threatened flights?
No. Authorities in Poland, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and the United Kingdom all reported negative searches after inspecting passengers, luggage and aircraft.
Which airlines were targeted by the bomb threats?
Ryanair was hit hardest with four flights affected. Wizz Air, SAS and LOT Polish Airlines also received warnings, and the cruise ship Crown Iris was evacuated in Greece.
Was anyone injured during the disruptions?
No injuries were reported. All the threatened planes took off and landed safely, and the Crown Iris resumed its voyage to Haifa after the all-clear.