A fresh wave of bomb threats forced airliners across Europe to divert and make emergency landings Thursday, the second such barrage in a single week, as authorities warn of widespread hybrid threats on the continent.
The threats targeted more than a dozen flights departing from Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan, Warsaw and other cities, the Associated Press reported. Searches so far have found nothing dangerous.
In one case, an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was rerouted to a military air base in Evreux, France, where it was escorted by military aircraft, according to French authorities.
“The 151 passengers and 6 crew members have been brought to safety, and bomb disposal teams are on-site,” French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said.
A Finnair flight from Helsinki landed in Rome under escort by Italian fighter jets, an airport official told the AP, while three Ryanair flights headed to Sofia, Bulgaria, made emergency landings.
Thursday’s chaos followed a similar wave on Tuesday, when at least seven flights and a cruise ship received threats that turned out to be false, Al Jazeera reported. Those threats briefly shut down an airport near Warsaw and prompted the Italian Air Force to escort a Ryanair plane into Rome.
No country has blamed anyone for the threats. But they come as European officials accuse Russia and Iran of carrying out “hybrid attacks” and sabotage, accusations both countries deny. This week alone, hackers shut down supermarket fridges in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland, weeks after a similar attack in France, and drone incursions have repeatedly disrupted European air travel.
Some experts said the hoax threats may be part of a broader pattern of inexpensive disruption tactics that are hard to trace back to any one country.