False bomb alerts hit several flights across Europe, no device found

On Tuesday, several scheduled flights in Europe received reports of suspected bombs on board, all of which turned out to be false. The checks led to searches, route changes and the temporary closure of some airports.

The first case involved a SAS flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw's Chopin airport. After landing, the aircraft was checked following a report of a dangerous object on board. One runway was closed for the duration of the checks, which ended around midday without affecting the rest of the airport's operations.

A flight by the Polish carrier LOT, arriving from London Heathrow and originally due in Warsaw, was diverted to Warsaw-Modlin airport instead. The Boeing 737 MAX landed without incident, passengers were evacuated and the aircraft was searched. Nothing was found, and the airport, closed temporarily, later resumed normal operations.

A similar alert affected a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Murcia, in Spain, which landed as scheduled. The emergency plan triggered by the Spanish airport authorities was lifted after checks carried out by the Spanish police. A Wizz Air flight from Bergamo was inspected on arrival in Sofia, Bulgaria, with no suspicious object found.

In Italy, a Ryanair flight from Lisbon landed in Fiumicino after an email warned of a bomb on board. Police bomb disposal officers checked passengers, crew and luggage without finding explosives. Another email reported a bomb on a second Ryanair flight, from Dublin to Rome: the Italian air force escorted the aircraft to Fiumicino, where the same checks were carried out, again with no result. The flight alerts came a day after emails had targeted around 280 Italian schools, causing evacuations.

Other recent incidents

Tuesday's alerts follow a similar case the day before, when a Wizz Air flight from Luton to Sofia had to make an emergency landing in Budapest, escorted by two Hungarian fighter jets. On 18 October, an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna had been diverted to Bulgaria, also without any explosives being found.

A false alarm also affected the cruise ship Crown Iris, moored in the Greek port of Syros and bound for Haifa, Israel, with 940 passengers and 597 crew members on board. The alarm was triggered after an unknown person contacted the captain by radio, but checks by the coast guard found nothing.