Bulgarian security forces searched a passenger plane that arrived in Sofia from Israel on Tuesday after a bomb threat was received by email, one of several false alarms that disrupted flights across Europe the same day.
Counter-terrorism units inspected the aircraft for possible explosives, the Bulgarian news agency BTA reported, citing Interior Ministry Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov. Bulgarian security officials said no suspicious items were found and ruled out a terror incident, assessing the threat as a hoax.
Bulgarian authorities did not identify the airline, flight number or number of passengers. Flight data published by aviation analyst Itai Blumenthal shows the only commercial flight from Israel to Bulgaria on Tuesday was El Al Flight 551, which landed in Sofia at 10:45 a.m.
Hours earlier, a LOT Polish Airlines flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw’s Chopin Airport was diverted to Warsaw-Modlin Airport after a bomb warning. The Boeing 737 MAX landed at 10:01 a.m. local time with 181 people on board, including a group of Jewish students aged 16 and 17 from a London high school, some of them Israelis living in Britain, who were traveling to Poland on an educational trip.
The mother of one student told Ynet that passengers were taken off the plane without their belongings and put through security screening. They were expected to continue to Warsaw by bus rather than on a connecting flight.
Two more flights, one from Copenhagen to Warsaw and another that landed in Murcia, Spain, were also targeted by bomb threats on Tuesday, according to LBC. On Monday, a Wizz Air flight from London to Sofia was diverted to Budapest and escorted by a Hungarian fighter jet after a bomb threat. No explosives were found. Authorities are investigating the source of the threats, with officials assessing they may be part of a coordinated campaign of false alarms targeting European air traffic.
The incidents follow a tightening of Israeli aviation security after the September 30 attack aboard Fly Dubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, when the plane’s Omani co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain and tried to take control of the aircraft. Under new directives issued by the National Passenger Profiling Center on October 29, all airlines flying to Israel must submit crew details 48 hours before departure, report any changes no later than two hours before takeoff and provide a final crew list at departure.
