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European authorities reported on Friday that at least 18 flights had been disrupted by bomb threats, with Hungarian fighter jets escorting three civilian aircraft through national airspace on routes connected to Brussels, Prague and other cities. The alerts affected carriers including Ryanair on a Lisbon to Rome service along with multiple flights in Czech, Bulgarian and French airspace, according to coordinated updates from the involved governments. All planes landed safely and searches by security teams found no explosives or suspicious items, officials from the affected nations stated.
The Friday incidents followed nearly 30 aircraft facing similar threats on Thursday and at least seven on Tuesday, producing a weekly total that exceeded 50 flights by some counts compiled by Reuters. Czech police confirmed nine flights to and from Prague received emailed warnings that morning, with the airport authority reporting all aircraft reached their destinations after assessments deemed the alerts low credibility. Bulgarian transport officials told AFP they had received two alerts for incoming flights to Sofia, adding to the pattern spanning more than a dozen countries including Italy, the UK and Denmark.
Irish police announced they were investigating threats directed at media organisations in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, resulting in evacuations at RTÉ along with the Irish Independent and Dublin offices of NewstalkFM and TodayFM. UK broadcaster Sky also received a security warning, while outlets in Bulgaria faced similar alerts although gardaí said no firm connections had been established to the aviation threats. The parallel actions prompted precautionary searches at the affected buildings, according to statements released by the police forces involved.
Security analysts have noted the coordinated scale of the alerts bears hallmarks of hybrid activity, Reuters reported, coming after a series of sabotage incidents targeting European power infrastructure, defence sites and other facilities. Spanish officials described the events as hybrid aggression in the form of psychological warfare, with the foreign minister citing the apparent aim to create widespread disruption. No government has publicly attributed the threats to any state or group and no verified claim of responsibility has emerged.
Airlines followed established security checklists for each warning, with Air France-KLM chief executive Ben Smith stating he had never before witnessed threats reported in such a coordinated manner while affirming confidence in operational safeguards. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin diverted to a French military air base where all 157 people on board were moved to safety for inspections that ultimately cleared the aircraft, the French prime minister’s office said. Similar protocols at other diversion airports including Plovdiv in Bulgaria, where one Ryanair service was redirected, also produced negative results for dangerous materials.
Aviation security consultants have observed that bomb threats to airlines are not rare but the volume and timing over consecutive days this week point toward possible orchestration, a Reuters assessment found. Danish police examined a renewed alert at Copenhagen Airport on Friday yet confirmed the facility operated normally with no danger identified to passengers or staff. Investigations into the origins of the phoned and emailed warnings have been assigned to specialised counter-terrorism and cyber units across the countries involved.
