Bomb threats disrupt flights and trigger emergency landings across Europe
Fox News foreign correspondent Jeff Paul reports on a string of bomb threats that prompted several commercial flights to divert or make emergency landings across Europe. The incidents involved Aer Lingus, Finnair and Wizz Air flights and followed earlier security warnings that authorities later determined were hoaxes.
At least 11 flights across Europe were diverted or forced to make emergency landings Thursday after receiving bomb threats that were later deemed unfounded.
The affected aircraft originated in cities including Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan and Warsaw. Authorities had not immediately identified the source of the threats.
The latest incidents followed a series of similar warnings received by European flights Tuesday. The U.K. government characterized those messages as “malicious hoax threats.”
“Upon receiving a threat regarding the placement of an improvised explosive device on board 4 aircraft heading to Prague, we are preparing with colleagues from Prague Airport for their landing. We assess the relevance of the threats as low,” Czech Police wrote on X. Officers later said inspections of the aircraft produced “negative results.”
The threats emerged as European officials have accused Russia and Iran of carrying out “hybrid attacks” and sabotage operations. Moscow and Tehran have denied the allegations, Reuters reported.
A Ryanair aircraft remains at Sofia Airport after flights from Copenhagen and Madrid landed there, according to Bulgaria’s interior minister, amid bomb threats that forced multiple unplanned landings across Europe on Nov. 5, 2026. (Reuters)
Earlier, a Dublin-to-Rome flight was diverted to a military air base in western France after a bomb threat, according to the office of French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu. The aircraft landed safely at the base in Evreux, Normandy, and all 151 passengers and six crew members disembarked, the office said.
A LOT Polish Airlines flight traveling from Warsaw to Brussels reached its destination, where crews found no hazardous or suspicious items during an inspection, the airline said.
A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest also landed safely after a bomb threat, according to airport spokesperson Teo Postelnicu.
A police officer and a sniffer dog examine a Ryanair aircraft and its baggage after the airline’s operations center reported a bomb threat received during a flight from Manchester to Murcia, according to Spain’s Guardia Civil, in Murcia, Spain, on Nov. 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Finnair said Flight 1761 from Helsinki to Rome was the target of a bomb threat. A search conducted after the plane landed in the Italian capital found nothing suspicious.
Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, were forced to make emergency landings after bomb threats were reported on board.
A Finnair aircraft sits on the tarmac at Fiumicino Airport near Rome, Italy, on Nov. 5, 2026, after a flight from Helsinki was escorted to its scheduled landing by Italian Air Force jets following bomb threats that prompted unplanned landings across Europe. (Reuters)
Two flights—one from Copenhagen and another from Madrid—landed safely at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, airport officials told reporters. The third flight bound for Sofia, which departed from London’s Stansted Airport, was diverted to Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, where it also landed safely, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.
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