New wave of bomb threats hits European broadcasters and air traffic

Four flights to and from Schwechat, near Austria's capital Vienna, were targeted by bomb threats that disrupted air traffic across Europe on Thursday [AFP]

By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters

A new series of bomb threats caused more flight diversions across Europe on Friday, while also expanding to target a number of media organisations.

British broadcaster Sky said it was one of a number of newsrooms that received a bomb threat. "We have carried out a security assessment and reported the matter to the relevant authorities," a spokesperson said.

Media Organisations Targeted

Bulgaria's Nova TV and the Irish public broadcaster RTÉ received emailed bomb threats from a purported "Mikhail Andropov," headlined "Message to the West," portraying the threats as a prelude to more disruptions across Europe.

RTÉ briefly evacuated staff, including radio and television presenters, in Dublin after an email was received on Friday morning. RTÉ Radio One presenter David McCullagh later told listeners that the threat warned that a bomb would explode within 45 minutes.

The Irish government said hoax bomb claims were also sent to Virgin Media, Newstalk radio and The Irish Independent newspaper, and that it was unclear who was behind them.

"However, these threats come on the heels of the ongoing disruption to aviation around Europe caused by similar threats, and it seems likely that this is a coordinated campaign of disruption," it said in a statement.

The incidents come a day after hoax bomb threats disrupted more than two dozen flights across Europe on Thursday, and days after other aircraft and a cruise ship received bomb alerts.

'Hoax Threats' Increasing

On Friday, jets escorted airliners flying from Brussels to Sofia and from Prague to Bucharest and Cyprus through Hungarian airspace due to bomb threats, Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said.

He also said NATO had ordered an air patrol near the Hungarian-Romanian border — the first report that the Western defence alliance had become involved.

Danish police said threats were directed at traffic at Copenhagen airport but that there appeared to be no danger to passengers. The airport said it was "operating normally."

Czech police registered bomb threats to nine flights departing from or arriving in Prague. An airport spokesperson said no flights had been cancelled as a result.

France said four new bomb threats were made to aircraft flying over French territory, and that all landed safely.

A Ryanair flight from Rome landed as scheduled in Lisbon, CNN Portugal reported. A WizzAir flight from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice.

About half a dozen flights were disrupted on Tuesday and more than two dozen on Thursday, some of them making unplanned landings or being escorted to their destinations by fighter jets.

Eurocontrol Monitoring Situation

European air traffic authority Eurocontrol on Friday said it was monitoring the situation and working closely with airlines, airports, navigation service providers and other groups across Europe "to mitigate any disruption to air traffic flows."

Al Jazeera's Frances Read, reporting from London on Friday, said that while the threats have not been credible so far, disruptions appear to be widening.

"The number of hoax threats this week is making governments sit up and take notice about where this might be coming from and also think of solutions for how to deal with it," she said.

Officials Respond

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it was unclear whether the hoax threats were connected to cyberattacks that targeted supermarkets across Europe and France's national blood service by raising the temperature of refrigerators and freezers connected to the internet.

"But they definitely all tell us the same thing: today, what is under attack are civilian infrastructures," Meloni told reporters on Friday.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the bomb threats against aircraft constituted an "attempt at hybrid aggression and psychological warfare" and an attack on European democracy by autocratic forces.

"It is clear that this is no coincidence," he told Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

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