Two planes travelling from the UK to Europe on Tuesday were the subject of “malicious hoax threats”, the Government has confirmed. Both flights - one departing from London Heathrow and the other from Manchester Airport - landed safely after bomb threats were received.
Both planes were inspected by local authorities after one landed in Poland and the other in Spain. They were among seven flights across Europe that were grounded after receiving similar threats on Tuesday.
Government response to threats
A Government spokesperson said of the two planes affected that departed from Britain: “The UK has one of the most robust aviation security systems in the world, with well-tested processes for dealing with any potential threats, as well as malicious hoax threats, like those we’ve seen today.”
“Our world-leading police and intelligence agencies work closely every day to keep us safe, using the tools they have to assess and respond to potential threats,” they added.
Flight from Heathrow diverted to Warsaw Modlin
The flight from Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin Airport was diverted to Warsaw Modlin Airport after departing on Tuesday morning. Warsaw Modlin Airport said on its website an alert had been raised regarding a bomb threat on board the Boeing 737 max aircraft at 9.54am and the flight had landed safely seven minutes later.
There were 181 people on board the LOT Polish Airlines flight and the airport closed while emergency services responded. The bomb threat was “cancelled” at 12.21pm, the airport said, adding flight operations had returned to normal on Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for LOT Polish Airlines said no suspicious items were found when the plane underwent a security inspection. “Following border control checks, passengers were transferred to Warsaw Chopin Airport by coach,” they added.
Manchester flight lands in Murcia
In another incident, Spanish officials confirmed a passenger plane travelling from Manchester had landed safely at Murcia Airport in south-east Spain after a bomb threat. In a post on social media, government delegate for the Murcia region Francisco Lucas said 114 passengers and seven crew members had disembarked the aircraft while a security check took place.
He later said the Guardia Civil had ruled out the presence of explosives on the plane following the inspection and the airport had resumed normal operations. A passenger on the flight told the BBC the plane stopped “quite suddenly” when it landed in Murcia and was “surrounded by fire engines and police and a bomb squad”. She told BBC 5 Live: “We were only later told that it was an actual threat, a bomb threat to the plane itself.”
Other flights affected across Europe
Elsewhere in Europe the same day, five other flights were reportedly impacted by suspected bomb threats, including one from Copenhagen to Warsaw Chopin Airport and a flight that took off from Bergamo in Italy and landed in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. Two Ryanair flights, one from Lisbon and one from Dublin, were also searched in Rome following suspected bomb threats, according to the BBC.
Bulgarian transport minister Georgi Peev told reporters bomb threats had been received regarding two planes travelling to Sofia, one from Bergamo and another from Dublin, according to the Bulgarian news agency BTA. Mr Peev said neither aircraft was diverted and no explosive devices were found during inspections.
It comes a day after a bomb threat forced a passenger plane from London to Bulgaria to divert to Budapest. The Wizz Air plane, which was due to depart Luton Airport at 8.15am on Monday and fly to Sofia Airport in the Bulgarian capital, was diverted after the threat was received “during the flight”. In a post on Facebook, Hungarian defence minister Ruszin-Szendi Romulusz said one of the country’s fighter jets had been involved in the response and ensured the passenger plane landed safely in Budapest. The A321 airbus was scheduled to land in Sofia at around 1.25pm local time and instead was diverted towards Hungary as it was flying over Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
