Seven European Flights Searched After Suspected Bomb Threats; No Explosives Found

The plane from Manchester had barely stopped moving on the ground at Murcia, in southern Spain, when the fire engines arrived. Sarah, a passenger on the Ryanair flight, told BBC Radio 5 Live that nobody had said anything during the flight. The aircraft stopped quite suddenly, and she said passengers were kept on the runway for about 30 minutes. Then police and a bomb squad turned up, and everyone was asked to evacuate, escorted by officers and leaving their belongings behind. Only later, she said, were they told it was a genuine bomb threat against the plane itself. Spanish authorities said nothing explosive was found.

Murcia was one of several places across Europe where aircraft were checked on Tuesday. In total, seven passenger planes were inspected after a run of suspected bomb threats, two of them flights that had left the UK. Planes were searched in Italy, Spain, Poland and Bulgaria, and in every case the checks came back negative.

In Rome, sources at Fiumicino airport told the BBC that two Ryanair flights, one from Dublin and one from Lisbon, were searched after landing following anonymous tips. The Dublin flight was escorted by the Italian Air Force until it touched down. Police bomb disposal experts followed standard protocols, inspecting passengers, luggage and the aircraft. Nothing was found, and the alert was cleared.

Two flights bound for Warsaw were also affected. A flight from London Heathrow was meant to land at Chopin airport but was diverted to the smaller Modlin airport, which was briefly closed as a result. A Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw-Chopin landed as scheduled.

Later in the day, Bulgarian Transport Minister Georgi Peev told the state-owned Bulgarian News Agency that two planes heading for Sofia had been targeted, one from Bergamo in northern Italy and one from Dublin. Neither was diverted, and no explosives were found. Bulgaria's border police said that at about 10:35 local time (08:35 GMT) they received an email reporting an improvised explosive device on the flight returning from Bergamo. The same email mentioned a similar threat against aircraft arriving from Dublin. The police said standard procedures were activated at once and an operational headquarters of several institutions was convened.

Separately, media reports from Greece and Israel said 1,537 passengers and crew were evacuated from the Crown Iris, a Panama-flagged cruise ship bound for Israel, after a bomb alert at the port on the Aegean island of Syros. Citing the Greek Coast Guard, the reports said initial checks found no explosives and the ship was due to resume its journey.

Officially there is no link between the incidents, but authorities from several countries will work together to assess whether this was a coordinated attack meant to disrupt airspace. The UK government called the incidents "malicious hoax threats" and said it has one of the most robust aviation security systems in the world. Aviation security expert Paul Mason told Radio 5 Live that such threats against passenger planes do not happen that frequently, which made these unusual. He said they appeared to have been made credibly across a broad range of airlines, suggesting a deliberate act by a typical actor rather than coincidental malicious calls.

The day before, a Wizz Air flight from London Luton made an emergency landing in Budapest, escorted by a Hungarian fighter jet, after a bomb threat. Wizz Air said checks found nothing.

BBC Verify consulted aviation experts on what happens aboard. Marco Chan, a former Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines pilot now at Kingston University, said a threat is treated as genuine until resolved, even though most prove to be hoaxes. Crews quietly search toilets, galleys and storage areas, and avoid touching suspicious items unless they must be moved to the aircraft's least-risk bomb location. On the ground, the plane is usually taken to an isolated stand, passengers disembark, and police and bomb teams search it. Former pilot Terry Tozer said captains must weigh the facilities at the diversion airport and how the plane could continue if the threat proves false. Investigators will now look at whether Tuesday's threats and Monday's Wizz Air case share a source.