Seven passenger planes across Europe, including two flights from the UK, have been searched after suspected bomb threats triggered security alerts in several countries.
The aircraft were inspected in Italy, Spain, Polandand Bulgaria after authorities received anonymous warnings. No explosives were found on any of the planes.
Two Ryanair flights, one from Dublin and the other from Lisbon, were searched after landing at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, according to sources who spoke to reporters.
The Dublin flight was escorted by the ItalianAir Force before landing.
Authorities in the affected countries were expected to co-operate to establish whether the incidents were linked, although officials said there was no confirmed connection between them.
The UK government described the incidentsas “malicious hoax threats.”
In a statement, it said the country had “oneof the most robust aviation security systemsin the world, with established procedures fordealing with potential threats and hoax warnings.
Aviation security expert Paul Mason said bomb threats against passenger planes were unusual because they did not happen frequently.
“It sounds like they’ve been made in a credible manner across a broad range of airlines.”
“That would suggest to me that it’s been a very deliberate act by a typical actor rather thana load of coincidental, malicious calls.”
Mason said flight crews and ground staff hadseveral procedures to follow to establish whethera threat was credible.
He added that an aircraft could be diverted ifa threat reached a certain level of credibility. Insome cases, the crew might not be told what ground operators were investigating.
In Rome, bomb disposal experts carried out security checks on the two Ryanair aircraft at Fiumicino Airport.
Sources said that inspections of thepassengers, luggage and planes found no explosives.The alert was later cleared.
A Ryanair flight from Manchester that landed in Murcia, southern Spain, was also searched. Spanish authorities said no explosives were found on board.
One passenger, identified as Sarah, said she was unaware of the threat until the plane landed. “We weren’t told anything during the flight. The plane stopped quite suddenly and thenwe were kept on the runway for around 30 minutes.”
She said fire engines, police officers and bomb disposal experts arrived shortly afterwards and passengers were asked to leave the aircraft.
Sarah said the plane had been on the ground for less than a minute before emergency vehicles surrounded it.
Passengers were escorted away by police andleft their belongings on board.
“We were only later told that it was an actual threat, a bomb threat to the plane itself.”
Two flights heading to Warsaw were also affected, including one from London Heathrow.
The Heathrow flight was initially scheduled to landat Warsaw Chopin Airport but was diverted to thesmaller Modlin Airport, which was briefly closed.
A Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagento Warsaw Chopin Airport landed as scheduled.
In Bulgaria, Transport Minister Georgi Peev said two planes travelling to Sofia had also received bomb threats.
He told the state-owned Bulgarian News Agency that the flights had departed from Bergamoin northern Italy and Dublin.
Neither flight was diverted, and checks found no explosives, Peev said.
Bulgaria’s border police said they received an email at about 10:35 local time, or 08:35 GMT, warning of an improvised explosive device on a flight returning from Bergamo.
“Standard procedures for such incidents were immediately activated, and an operational headquarters comprising representatives of various institutions was convened,” the borderpolice said in a statement.
The email also reported a similar threat against anaircraft arriving from Dublin, the statement added.
In a separate incident, a bomb alert prompted the evacuation of 1,537 passengers and crew from an Israel-bound cruise ship in Greece.
Media reports in Greece and Israel said initial checks found no explosives on board the Panama-flagged Crown Iris, which was docked at a porton the Aegean island of Syros.
The ship was expected to resume its journey.
The latest aircraft incidents came a day after a Wizz Air flight from London Luton made an emergency landing in Budapest following a bomb threat.
The plane was escorted by a Hungarian fighterjet. Wizz Air later said security checks foundnothing suspicious.
Reportmen consulted aviation safety experts about the procedures followed when a bomb threat is reported on a passenger plane.
Marco Chan, a former pilot with Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Airlines, said a bomb threat was treated as genuine until it was resolved, even though most turned out to be hoaxes.
Chan, now a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Kingston University, said crews would quietly search toilets, galleys and storage areas.
He said crew members would not touch a suspicious object unless it had to be moved to an area of the aircraft designated as the least risky location in the event of a bomb.
Former airline pilot and aviation safety commentator Terry Tozer said a captain had several factors to consider when deciding whether to divert a plane.
These included the facilities available at the alternative airport and how the aircraft could continue its journey if the threat proved false.
Chan said planes were generally moved to an isolated parking area after landing, where passengers were evacuated before police and bomb disposal teams searched the aircraft.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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