Several passenger aircraft were diverted or forced to make emergency landings across Europe on Thursday after bomb threats and security alerts, including an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome which was escorted to France by fighter jets.
Flight EI420 departed Dublin Airport at 6.20am bound for Rome Fiumicino, but transmitted the international 7700 emergency code about 90 minutes into the journey.
The Airbus A320 was subsequently diverted to Evreux airbase in Normandy. The office of French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said it was monitoring the situation.
One passenger said the pilot initially told those on board there was a technical problem. After landing, however, passengers were informed that a security threat linked to the flight had been assessed as non-credible.
“In that moment I felt absolute panic and ran away from my desk to try to get hold of him,” the mother of a 16-year-old passenger on another affected flight said.
Passengers on the Aer Lingus aircraft were told to remain on board with the doors shut while a team arrived to search the plane. One passenger said she had been “panicked” and “reading the bible” as the incident unfolded.
Further bomb alerts reported across Europe
Bomb alerts were also reported on two flights from Rome and Milan, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.
A flight from Helsinki to Rome was safely escorted to Fiumicino airport by Italian air force jets after a bomb alert, while three aircraft were reported to have made emergency landings in Bulgaria.
Two of the Bulgarian-bound aircraft, travelling from Copenhagen and Madrid, landed in Sofia. A third flight from London landed in Plovdiv, according to local media reports citing government ministers.
The incidents came days after a series of hoax bomb threats caused disruption at airports across Europe. At least seven flights were targeted on Tuesday, with several diverted or searched after landing.
Bomb disposal experts searched two Ryanair aircraft at Rome Fiumicino after anonymous warnings about possible bombs. One had arrived from Lisbon and the other from Dublin, with the latter accompanied by an Italian fighter jet.
Alerts were also reported on a British Airways? flight from Heathrow to Warsaw and a Ryanair service from Manchester to Murcia in southern Spain. A flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw and a Wizz Air service from Bergamo to Sofia were also affected.
The Ryanair flight from Dublin to Sofia, carrying 185 passengers, was searched after receiving a warning. A Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Bulgaria was escorted by a fighter jet on Monday after being threatened.
A LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 travelling from Heathrow to Warsaw was diverted to Warsaw Modlin after an alert was issued at 9.54am local time. It landed safely seven minutes later with 181 passengers on board.
The passengers included teenagers from the Jews’ Free School in north-west London who had been travelling on a Holocaust education trip to former concentration camps in Poland.
Spanish officials confirmed that the Ryanair flight from Manchester to Murcia had also been the subject of a threat. Bulgarian media reported that the Wizz Air flight from Bergamo to Sofia, carrying 176 passengers, was grounded after an alert was received by email.
