Third day with bomb threats to various planes in Europe

BarcelonaThe wave of bomb threats against airplanes in Europe continues. If this Thursday the warnings affected at least 30 flights, the threats have affected more planes this Friday in France, Denmark, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. It is already the third day this week that bomb alerts have interrupted dozens of flights in Europe without, for the moment, any explosive device having been detected on any of them. However, the wave of false alarms, which began on Tuesday, has caused disruptions to European air traffic, with emergency landings, diversions, delays, or even combat aircraft escorting the threatened flights.

Four of the bomb threats recorded this Friday were in France, according to information from the office of the French Ministry of the Interior. All four were received while the planes were flying over French territory and the aircraft landed without incident. Explosive ordnance disposal units inspected the planes -Lecornu's office noted- and authorities are investigating the origin of the threats, which remains unknown.

In the Czech Republic, the threatened flights had their origin and destination in Prague. According to a spokesperson for the city's airport, of the affected planes, four were heading to the Czech capital and five had it as their point of origin. As in the rest of the cases, no explosive devices were found. Shortly after, Italian authorities reported that one of the flights coming from Prague was heading to Rome and was diverted to Venice.

Portugal is also investigating a bomb warning on a plane that was going from Lisbon to Rome, a threat that caused it to take off with more than a two-hour delay. The Portuguese police detailed that, in this case, the warning was received when the plane was heading to Lisbon and that it arrived "through international police cooperation mechanisms." "The competent authorities are investigating the origin and circumstances of the threat," noted the Portuguese police, who detailed that no information will be provided about "additional elements that could compromise the investigation."