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An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 operating flight OS82 from Tel Aviv to Vienna diverted to Bulgaria’s capital after the crew reported a bomb threat while the aircraft approached Romanian airspace, according to Bulgaria’s Ministry of Transport and Communications. The plane landed safely at Vasil Levski Airport in Sofia late on October 18 with all 57 people on board evacuated without injury, the ministry said in a statement. Bulgarian media and Israeli outlets including The Jerusalem Post reported that the threat involved a suspicious object, leading to an immediate security response.
Bulgaria’s air force scrambled a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the airliner as standard procedure during the diversion, the transport ministry reported. Austrian Airlines confirmed to Reuters that a threat had been made against the flight without providing additional specifics, adding that a comprehensive search of the aircraft began upon landing roughly 30 minutes after the alert. Flight tracking data from platforms such as Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange showed the plane transmitting emergency squawk code 7700 before turning south toward Sofia, information cited across reports from Al Jazeera and Reuters.
The carrier told AFP there were 51 passengers and six crew members aboard the jet that departed Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday evening, with passengers set for rebooking on alternative flights once the search concluded. Israel’s public broadcaster KAN News, as relayed by The Jerusalem Post, indicated Austrian authorities received a phone call from Vienna about the potential bomb, though the Israel Air Force confirmed it had no involvement since the event occurred well outside its airspace. Early indications from Bulgarian officials pointed to a possible false alarm, though no final determination had been released.
This episode adds to a recent pattern of security alerts involving flights linked to Israel. A Flydubai aircraft en route to Tel Aviv experienced an attempted hijacking last month when a co-pilot attacked the captain with an axe, only for crew and passengers to overpower the assailant before a safe landing in Saudi Arabia, accounts from the BBC and Reuters detailed. The Jerusalem Post separately noted two anonymous bomb threats received last week against Delta Airlines flights from New York to Israel, both later deemed unfounded.
Bulgaria’s transport ministry established a crisis response team and opened a formal investigation into the threat’s origin while coordinating with Austrian and Israeli counterparts, its statement indicated. The airline emphasised in comments to multiple outlets that passenger and crew safety remained the top priority throughout the incident. Authorities have yet to disclose further details about the caller or any potential motives as the probe continues.
