Seven Flights in Europe Received Bomb Threats, No Devices Found

Updated: seven flights, and a correction on Sofia

Later reporting by Reuters, carried by CNN, put the total at seven flights, not six. The seven were at least two flights to Warsaw, two to Sofia, two to Rome and one to Murcia in Spain. No devices were discovered on any of them. Aerospace Global News listed the same seven: the LOT flight from London Heathrow, the SAS flight from Copenhagen, the Ryanair flight from Manchester to Murcia, two Ryanair flights to Rome from Lisbon and Dublin, a Wizz Air flight from Bergamo to Sofia and a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Sofia. This article has been corrected and updated with that count.

At least seven passenger flights across Europe were inspected on Tuesday, November 3, after suspected bomb threats, and no devices were found on any of the planes. Two of the flights had left the United Kingdom. One flight was diverted, one airport in Poland briefly closed, and officials in Spain later said one of the reports was a hoax.

The two Warsaw flights

A LOT Polish Airlines flight from London Heathrow that was meant to land at Warsaw Chopin was diverted to Warsaw Modlin, which was briefly closed while the plane was searched. Modlin said it reopened after no device was found.

"At 9:54 a.m., a bomb threat alert was announced on board an aircraft operating a flight on the route London Heathrow (LHR) to Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW). At 10:01 a.m., a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft landed at Warsaw/Modlin Airport," the airport said in its statement. The 181 people aboard were evacuated while the aircraft was checked.

An SAS flight from Copenhagen landed at Warsaw Chopin as scheduled and was checked there. No device was found, and Chopin remained operational. SAS confirmed that its flight landed safely and that all passengers disembarked. "We are following established security procedures while taking care of our passengers and crew. The matter is now being handled by the police in Warsaw, and we are following their instructions," an SAS spokesperson said.

Flights searched in Spain and Italy

A Ryanair flight from Manchester to Murcia in Spain was searched after a bomb threat. Officials said the report proved to be a hoax, no explosives were found, and the airport resumed normal operations. There were 121 people on board, made up of 114 passengers and 7 crew. "Security protocol activated due to a bomb threat on a flight from Manchester that has landed in Murcia," Francisco Lucas Ayala, the Spanish government delegate in Murcia, said.

Sources told the BBC that two further Ryanair flights, one from Lisbon and one from Dublin, both bound for Rome Fiumicino, were searched following anonymous tips regarding potential bomb threats. Rome Fiumicino said checks on passengers, baggage and the aircraft returned negative results and the alert was lifted. Reports differ on which of the Rome bound flights was escorted by Italian military jets, and this report does not name one.

Hoax threats, an escort and a ship search

The UK government described the day's incidents as malicious hoax threats. The Italian Air Force accompanied one of the flights to Rome. There was no claim of responsibility and officials did not attribute blame, and none of the affected airlines responded to Reuters requests for comment. Aviation risk analyst Rhys Jones of Osprey Flight Solutions told Reuters that seven confirmed bomb threats in a single day impacting flights was exceptional.

Also on Tuesday, an explosives detection dog and a diver searched the Panama flagged Crown Iris cruise ship on the Greek island of Syros after an unknown person said an explosive device had been attached to the boat's hull.

Sofia check and the Monday diversion

In Sofia, Bulgaria, the two flights were a Wizz Air flight from Bergamo, with 176 passengers, and a Ryanair flight from Dublin, with 186 passengers on board, according to a transport ministry statement reported by Reuters. Both landed safely and no explosive devices were found. BTA had earlier quoted an Interior Ministry official saying a flight from Israel had been affected. Authorities later said that was not the case, and the Sofia account in the first version of this article is corrected here.

The Tuesday checks came a day after a similar alert on Monday. A Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Sofia was diverted to Budapest after a bomb threat. Wizz Air said security checks were made and nothing was found.

No explosives have been reported on any of the Tuesday planes, and no arrests have been announced in the reports checked.