Dublin to Rome flight diverted to French air base as at least 21 aircraft face hoax bomb threats

An Aer Lingus Dublin to Rome flight was diverted to a French military air base on Thursday after a bomb threat, one of at least 21 aircraft targeted across Europe in the second wave of such alerts in a single week. No explosives have been found on any of the planes involved.

What happened to the Dublin to Rome flight

The Aer Lingus Airbus A320 was rerouted to Evreux military airfield, west of Paris, and escorted by military aircraft. France’s air force said it scrambled jets “as soon as the threat was reported”. The office of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said a bomb squad was waiting at the airfield and that 151 passengers and six crew had been moved to a safe place.

Aer Lingus described the diversion as a “security precaution” and said the aircraft landed safely in Normandy. The airline said it was working to get passengers to Rome as soon as possible.

A wider pattern across Europe

The Dublin to Rome flight was only one of many. According to the BBC, flights to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland and Romania were affected. The Guardian’s live coverage, which counted aircraft reported through the day, put the tally at 25 at one stage.

• Two Finnair flights from Helsinki were targeted. One was escorted into Rome’s Fiumicino airport by Italian fighter jets, and the other landed in Vienna.
• Three Ryanair flights landed in Bulgaria, two of them in Sofia, escorted by Bulgarian fighter jets. The transport ministry said no issues were identified.
• Czech police said four aircraft arriving in Prague were searched with negative results. Among them were EasyJet flights from Newcastle and Glasgow. The National Centre against Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime has taken over the investigation.
• A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was diverted to Vienna, and LOT and Aegean Airlines each reported flights affected.
• Spain’s airport authority said three flights at Madrid were targeted, but any threat was ruled out after inspections.
• Heathrow and Birmingham airports received threats that were assessed as not credible.

The disruption follows similar threats earlier in the week, which briefly shut an airport outside Warsaw.

Who is behind the threats?

The answer is still unclear. Aeroporti di Roma, which manages Rome’s two airports, confirmed to the BBC that the threat against two inbound flights arrived by email. It was signed by a group or individual calling themselves “Fighters of the Male State”, who said they were targeting a “feminist regime” and threatened to “turn the skies red”. The BBC noted that the name appears to echo a Russian ultra-right group banned by a Moscow court in 2021. It also cautioned that even if the email is genuine, it is unlikely to give investigators the leads they need.

No arrests or charges have been reported, and no country has attributed blame. Al Jazeera noted that the threats come as many European officials accuse Russia of planning cheap, deniable “hybrid attacks”, but that is context rather than a finding about these incidents. EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said it was “too early to draw conclusions on whether the reported incidents are linked”.

Official response

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the incidents “malicious hoax threats” and said there were “established processes” for dealing with them. Heathrow said there was “no risk to passengers, colleagues or the aircraft”. A global airlines body condemned “attempts to interrupt air transport” and urged authorities to find the origins of the threats.

The Guardian’s analysis offered some perspective. About 20 alerts are still a tiny fraction of all flights in Europe, though experts quoted there said the sheer number of hoaxes pointed to coordinated action. For the passengers on the diverted Dublin to Rome flight, that meant an unscheduled stop at a military base rather than the Italian capital.

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