An Aer Lingus jet bound for Rome looped sharply on its approach to Paris and landed at a military air base in Normandy, where French military bomb disposal teams went to work. It was one of several flights across Europe thrown into chaos on Thursday by bomb threats, the latest in a string of hoaxes this week.

The French prime minister's office said all 151 passengers and six crew on the Dublin to Rome flight were safe after it was diverted to the Evreux base, the Associated Press reports.

The flights hit on Thursday

Reports by AP and AFP list:

  • Finnair flight 1761 from Helsinki to Rome, escorted by an Italian air force fighter jet to Rome, where bomb disposal experts checked it. Finnish broadcaster Yle reported that "nothing out of the ordinary" was found.
  • A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw, rerouted to Vienna. The airline said the diversion followed "established safety protocols and procedures".
  • Three Ryanair flights to Sofia, Bulgaria. Planes from Copenhagen and Madrid landed safely in Sofia, while a London Stansted flight was diverted to Plovdiv, according to Plovdiv Airport's chief executive Krassimir Peshev.
  • The Aer Lingus flight from Dublin, diverted to Evreux in France.

No one was reported hurt.

A week of scares

Thursday's alerts followed a larger wave on Tuesday, when AFP reports about ten flights were targeted, a Warsaw airport was briefly shut and Italy sent air force jets to protect flights. On Monday a Wizz Air plane from London Luton to Sofia made an emergency stop in Budapest after a threat. Polish carrier LOT and Scandinavian Airlines have also been affected this week.

Gulf News, citing AFP, describes Thursday as the third day of threats this week, while AP calls it the second major wave.

No explosives have been found and no one has claimed responsibility. Officials have treated the threats as hoaxes, and AP notes they come at a time of heightened geopolitical tension in Europe. Some commentators have speculated about Russian involvement, but no government has publicly confirmed who is behind them.

What it means for travellers

Each hoax forces airlines to follow full emergency procedures: diverting to the nearest safe airport, evacuating passengers and searching the aircraft. That means hours of delays, missed connections and costly disruption, even when nothing is found.

Many Kenyans travel through European hubs such as London, Rome and Paris. Travellers connecting through the continent in the coming days should keep an eye on airline alerts and allow extra time, as aviation authorities and police try to trace where the threats are coming from.

Photos: Gulf News (Wizz Air aircraft); Bahnfrend via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0, Finnair Airbus A321). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.