Bloomberg: European airlines face a wave of aircraft bomb threats

European airlines suffered a second wave of bomb threats on Thursday that indiscriminately targeted companies from low-cost operator EasyJet Plc to Finnish flag carrier Finnair Oyj, throwing air travel into disarray across a region already grappling with a series of security scares, Bloomberg reports.

More than 10 flights were forced to divert or were searched by authorities after touching down at their destinations, some escorted by fighter jets during their descent. Passengers were left out of position, including occupants of an Aer Lingus jet that was headed from Dublin to Rome and was diverted to a military airfield in northern France under government orders.

Finnair said two flights headed from Helsinki to Rome and Vienna got threats that turned out to be false. Other carriers targeted included LOT Polish Airlines and Wizz Air Holdings Plc, which was already at the receiving end of several threats earlier in the week. In the Czech Republic, police said they received bomb threats about four planes headed to Prague, and that the aircraft were searched after they touched down.

“To have this in a coordinated way, I don’t think we’ve seen this before,” Ben Smith, the chief executive officer of Air France-KLM, said on a call with journalists to discuss third-quarter earnings. “It’s unfortunate and we hope it won’t give our consumers any reason to slow down or reduce their travel plan.”

No pattern has emerged around the spate of threats this week, either with the carriers drawn in or the routes that were affected. Bomb threats are rare events and almost always end up being hoaxes or the act of copycats. On average, there are more than 30,000 flights a day in Europe’s skies.

But the unusual rise in bomb threats comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tension and freak disruptions in Europe, including repeat hacking attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions into the territory.

At least seven flights were disrupted by bomb threats between Monday and Tuesday, leading to hundreds of passengers being diverted and fighter jets escorting some aircraft to airports. No explosives were found and the UK government called the incidents “malicious hoax threats.“

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