A chilling four-word bomb threat has caused travel chaos in Europe, forcing aircraft to make emergency landings. Fighter jets were scrambled on Thursday morning after airports across the continent received bomb threats, prompting diversions on routes from cities including Copenhagen, Madrid, Helsinki and Warsaw.
Transport hubs in Italy reportedly received a harrowing email from a right-wing Russian hate group, threatening to “turn the skies red”. The message was sent to at least three Italian airports, The Sun reports. It read: “You are all complicit in a criminal conspiracy. We want to destroy you for this.
“Precisely for this reason, at this precise moment, the following flights have been placed with explosive devices. AY1761, Helsinki – Italy, EI402, Dublin – Italy. They are headed to your airport. We, fighters of the Male State, with our actions today will leave a mark on history. Your feminist regime will remember this forever.”
Authorities launched urgent searches on the flights in question but were not able to recover any explosives. Heathrow and Birmingham airports also received threats that were assessed as not credible on Thursday, according to reports, with operations continuing as normal.
EasyJet said one of its flights that departed from Newcastle and another from Glasgow were met by police in Prague as a “precautionary measure due to a security-related matter”. A Ryanair plane from London Stansted heading for the Bulgarian capital Sofia was also diverted and landed safely in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, according to the Associated Press.
A flight from Dublin to Rome was similarly diverted to an airfield in northern France following a bomb alert, while most affected flights made emergency landings at alternative airports. At least a dozen European flights were confirmed to have been targeted.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the UK took the threats “seriously” but described them as “malicious hoaxes”. Ms Alexander added: “We do have some of the most robust aviation security systems anywhere in the world and we have established processes for dealing with hoax and malicious threats, and that’s what these threats have been.”
A UK Government spokesperson said the threats had been reported in the “early hours” of Thursday and had since been “resolved”. “It’s right that authorities treat any potential threats seriously,” they said.
