Hoax bomb threats target European airlines and airports for second time in a week

At least 21 aircraft and several airports across Europe have been targeted by bomb threats in the second such incident this week, with the UK calling it a "malicious hoax".

Flights to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland and Romania were affected. An Aer Lingus plane from Dublin to Rome was diverted to an air base in France and Italian fighter jets escorted Finnair's Helsinki-Rome flight.

EasyJet said its flights from Newcastle and Glasgow were met by police in Prague as a precaution. London Heathrow and Birmingham airports received threats that were assessed as not credible.

No explosives have been found during searches, and it is not clear if the incidents, some claimed by a little known group, are related.

Who could be behind hoax bomb threats to European air travel?

The airport authorities in Italy's capital Rome said the hoax threat against two inbound flights received on Thursday had come by email.

The warnings were signed on behalf of a group or individual calling themselves "Fighters of the Male State", claiming to be targeting a "feminist regime" and wanting to "make our mark on history".

They threatened to "turn the skies red" with explosions.

These details were first reported by Italian media and then confirmed to the BBC by Aeroporti di Roma, which manages both of the city airports.

"Fighters of the Male State" likely refers to the Russian group "Muzhskoi Legion" ( "Male Legion") - an ultra-right group with such extreme views it was banned by a Moscow court in 2021. Yet it retained tens of thousands of online followers as it cheered on the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in the following year.

But that email, even if genuine, is unlikely to provide the leads that police and airport authorities need to pin down who is generating these hoaxes and why.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described Thursday's incidents as "malicious hoax threats."

She said the government was taking "these threats seriously", stressing that there were "established processes for dealing with hoax and malicious threats".

A UK government spokesperson later said the threats reported "in the early hours" of the day had been "resolved", without giving any further details.

Heathrow later said in a statement it had received a threat earlier in the day which was "deemed not credible", adding there was "no risk to passengers, colleagues or the aircraft".

"There are robust UK aviation security standards in place to assess and safely manage these types of situations," the statement said.

Meanwhile, a Birmingham Airport spokesperson told the BBC it had received a threat, after which "processes were immediately initiated in conjunction with emergency services and partners".

The following flights were targeted by threats on Thursday:

Aer Lingus said its flight from Dublin to Rome diverted to Normandy, landing safely. The company added that it was working to "re-accommodate customers to their final destination as soon as possible".

Two Finnair flights from Helsinki landed at their destinations as normal, the airline said. One was escorted into Rome's Fiumicino airport by Italian Air Force fighter jets, Aeroporti di Roma told the BBC, while the other landed in Vienna, Austria

Wizz Air said two flights which departed Milan were affected - one was heading to Warsaw, before being diverting to Vienna; the other landed safely in Bucharest, with teams inspecting the aircraft

Polish airline LOT said its flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed as planned, and "no suspicious items were found". Another LOT flight from Warsaw to Paris was stopped before take-off and the plane and baggage underwent a security screening, with no hazardous items found

Three Ryanair flights landed in Bulgaria, according to Bulgarian media - one from Copenhagen and another from Madrid landed in the capital Sofia, while a third coming from London bound for Sofia landed in Plovdiv. The flights were escorted by Bulgarian air force fighter jets

No explosives were found on four flights which landed in Prague, Czech police said. EasyJet later said its flights from Newcastle and Glasgow were among those affected. "Passengers on both flights disembarked normally," the company said

Aegean Airlines said it "was informed of a bomb threat" concerning two of its flights from Thessaloniki in Greece to Milan, and also from Athens to Vienna. It said threat was "unfounded", and both flights departed from the respective airports"

A Ryanair flight from Porto in Portugal landed safely in Milan as planned, with bomb disposal experts checking them on arrival, Italy's Ansa news agency reported