Aer Lingus flight diverted after bomb threat forced to land at French air base, Digi Mart USA News (Évreux, northwestern France): Two French fighter jets forced an Aer Lingus Airbus A320 operating from Dublin to Rome to land at a French air base on Thursday, after the pilot refused to land at a military facility. The aircraft had been diverted because of a bomb threat.
The aircraft finally landed at the Évreux air base in northwestern France, according to the regional broadcaster France 3 in Normandy. The plane was intercepted by a Mirage 2000-5 and a Rafale after the Irish pilot refused to land at the military base and requested a civilian airport, citing Beauvais or Nantes, according to judicial sources cited by France 3.
According to the office of French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, the decision to send fighter jets was taken by him personally, based on the pilot’s attitude and lack of cooperation.
The Évreux public prosecutor’s office has opened three independent investigations to clarify the conduct of the A320’s captain. His initial refusal to land at the military base could constitute an offense under the French Civil Aviation Code.
The incident is part of a wider series of cases involving false bomb threats against aircraft. In recent hours, more than 15 flights and European airports in France, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Denmark and Greece were affected, following earlier reports on Tuesday that had already required extensive security deployments.
One of the affected flights linked Porto and Milan and was also hit by a false bomb threat, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. One of the flights affected on Tuesday connected Lisbon and Rome.
ANSA also reported that a Russian extremist cell reportedly sent an email to Italian airports threatening six flights. The threat email ended with the line “The explosion will take place in 60 minutes.
Today, your sky will be red,” and was signed by fighters of the “Male State,” as cited by ANSA.
The signature refers to Muzhskoye Gosudarstvo, a Russian ultranationalist and misogynistic movement, already known to international authorities, founded by Vladislav Pozdnyakov and banned in Russia. The email, as quoted by ANSA, stated: “We, the fighters of the Male State, will leave our mark on history through our actions today.
Your feminist regime will remember it forever.”
Separately, three Ryanair flights bound for Bulgaria from Madrid, London and Copenhagen were also hit by false bomb threats, according to the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport. The ministry confirmed that no explosive devices were found on any of the three aircraft, which were escorted by military aircraft until landing.
The flights from Madrid and Copenhagen landed as scheduled at Sofia’s Vasil Levski airport. The flight from London was diverted to Plovdiv airport, 120 kilometers from Sofia, where it underwent security procedures.
Finnair confirmed that two flights linking Helsinki with Rome and Vienna received bomb threats, although both aircraft landed normally at their destinations. Flight AY1471 from Helsinki to Vienna, operated by the Danish company Jettime, also landed without problems in the Austrian capital.
In Vienna, a WizzAir flight on the Milan Malpensa-Warsaw route made an emergency landing due to another bomb threat.
Romania’s Intelligence Service said Bucharest’s international airport received an alert about a bomb threat targeting a WizzAir aircraft flying from Milan to the Romanian capital, carrying 182 passengers and seven crew members.
Four flights bound for Prague that had received bomb threats landed as scheduled in the Czech capital, and police reported that no suspicious objects were found.
In Brussels, a LOT Polish Airlines passenger aircraft landed without incident at Brussels Zaventem airport after receiving an alert. Two flights of the Greek airline Aegean, one from Thessaloniki to Milan and another from Athens to Vienna, also received false bomb threats, the company said in a statement.
At Warsaw’s Chopin airport, one runway was temporarily closed after another LOT flight bound for Paris was affected by a potential threat, according to Polish Airports spokesperson Piotr Rudzki. He said standard security procedures were applied, including inspection of the aircraft, passengers and their baggage, but “the threat was not confirmed,” after which the airport resumed normal operations.
Copenhagen airport also recorded an incident described as a false alarm involving two aircraft, which required police and military explosive-disposal specialists, according to the Danish news agency Ritzau.
