UK transport minister: threats to European flights taken seriously

On Thursday morning, bomb threats forced multiple flights bound for European destinations to be diverted, marking the second such incident within a week. The occurrences follow a series of hoax security alerts involving flights from the UK and Ireland earlier in the week. A total of at least 14 flights were reportedly impacted on Thursday, with fighter jets escorting some of them.

Alternative airports and military bases served as diversion points. Airlines affected included Ryanair and Wizz Air, while Aer Lingus also experienced a diversion after a bomb alert on its flight from Dublin to Rome. The French prime minister's office confirmed that the 151 passengers and six crew members aboard the aircraft were safely evacuated, and bomb disposal teams were deployed.

Aer Lingus reassured passengers that the flight landed securely and that efforts were underway to reroute them to their intended destinations. Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport reported three aircraft making emergency landings in Sofia due to bomb threats, with Ryanair and a flight from Helsinki to Rome escorted by Italian airforce units.

Wizzair reported a diversion of a flight to Warsaw from Milan to Vienna, while a Polish airline's flight from Warsaw to Brussels also landed without incident after receiving a security warning. In the Czech Republic, police received bomb threats on four flights to Prague, which were later deemed to have low credibility after explosive tests.

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, reassured the public that established processes for handling hoax and malicious threats are in place, emphasizing the government's seriousness towards the matter while acknowledging the malicious nature of these threats. The incidents, which come after similar threats on Tuesday affecting seven flights across Europe, have prompted authorities to cooperate in assessing whether the threats are coordinated.

The UK government affirmed its readiness to handle such situations but clarified they were determined to be malicious hoaxes.