Hoax bomb threats disrupted dozens of passenger flights across Europe on Thursday, forcing some aircraft to land unexpectedly and prompting fighter jets to escort or intercept others, Reuters reported.

The agency said nearly 30 flights were affected by the end of Thursday. This followed a first wave on Tuesday, when hoax threats targeted at least seven flights and a cruise ship. AFP counted about 20 flights on Thursday, so the totals differ between agencies.

No government has said who was behind the threats, and Reuters said no claim of responsibility had been verified. In France, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said he sent fighter jets to intercept an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome and escort it to the Evreux airbase after the pilot did not cooperate with the authorities as expected. The airline said the flight landed safely with 151 passengers and six crew. An Evreux prosecutor told AFP the pilot had allegedly refused to land at the military base and preferred a civilian airport.

Bulgaria’s air force said its fighters escorted three airliners to the ground, and a Ryanair flight from London to Sofia was diverted to Plovdiv. Romania’s intelligence agency said a KLM flight to Tel Aviv, with a stop in Bucharest, received a threat. Spanish police said three emailed threats arrived within 20 minutes, involving two Air Europa departures from Madrid to Paris and four Iberia flights inbound from Rome and Milan. In Warsaw, a LOT flight to Paris was stopped while taxiing, and passengers were moved to another aircraft. Danish police searched two planes at Copenhagen airport.

Other flights that received threats, including EasyJet, Finnair, LOT, Wizz Air, Ryanair, and Air Serbia services to Prague, Sofia, Vienna, Brussels, Bucharest, Rome, and Milan, landed as scheduled, some under military escort, Reuters said.

An Italian airport source told Reuters that an email titled “Threat report” went to airlines, airport operators, and service providers at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa. It claimed to come from “fighters of the Male State” and said devices had been placed on inbound flights from Helsinki and Dublin. Reuters could not verify who sent it. Vladislav Pozdnyakov, the Russian blogger who founded the Male State movement in 2016, said the group no longer exists and had no part in the threats. He said whoever uses its name is “flying someone else’s flag”.

Security experts told Reuters the threats could come from individuals with grievances or copycats but could also be a coordinated “hybrid attack”. Eric Schouten, head of the aviation security group Dyami, said it is hard to prove which country is behind such actions, but “it does fit in the modus operandi”. Many European officials have accused Russia of sabotage and hybrid attacks since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Russia and Iran deny such accusations.

Joji Waites of the British Airline Pilots’ Association said airlines do not act on threats unless assessors rate them as credible. Eliran Almog, CEO of the aviation cybersecurity firm Cyviation, said the hoaxes could disrupt operations and let those responsible observe how airlines and authorities react. He noted that the threats came as hackers shut down supermarket fridge systems across Europe for the second time this week, which also affected French blood banks.

Source: Reuters; additional details from AFP.