An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome carrying 151 passengers was diverted to the Evreux air base in northern France on Thursday morning after a bomb threat, French officials said.1,3,4
The Airbus A320 issued an emergency alert during the flight and landed under military escort, with a bomb squad in place at the airfield. All passengers and six crew members were moved to safety. The diversion added to a string of bomb threats that have disrupted flights across Europe this week, though officials have not attributed blame and no group has claimed responsibility.1,4
The aircraft was operating as flight EI402 from Dublin to Rome. It departed Ireland on Thursday morning and, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, turned near Paris before circling over the Evreux area after declaring an in-flight emergency. Evreux lies west of Paris, and Aer Lingus described the destination in a statement as Normandy.1,4
France's air force said it had dispatched planes "as soon as the threat was reported" on Thursday. "The aircraft has been diverted and is being escorted to the Evreux airfield" west of Paris, it added.4
The office of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said a bomb squad was in place at the airport and that 151 Aer Lingus passengers and six crew were moved to safety.4
Aer Lingus confirmed that flight EI402 from Dublin to Rome "diverted to Normandy this morning as a security precaution." The airline added, "The flight landed safely and Aer Lingus will work to re-accommodate customers to their final destination as soon as possible."1
In a separate incident, a Wizz Air flight travelling from Milan to Warsaw also issued an emergency alert before diverting to Vienna, Austria. There has been no report of a bomb threat involving that flight and the reason for the diversion is unclear.1
Bulgaria also reported disruption on Thursday, with local media reporting that three aircraft requested emergency landings because of bomb threats.4
The incidents came days after a series of suspected bomb threats involving European flights on Tuesday. The BBC described eight European flights, including two departing from the UK, as targeted by suspected threats, and separately said seven planes were searched after threats were made. No explosives were found on any of the planes after searches. Al Jazeera described several European flights targeted on Tuesday, prompting emergency searches, briefly shutting down an airport outside Warsaw and leading the Italian Air Force to escort a Ryanair plane into Rome.1,4
Two of the Tuesday flights were from the UK, one travelling from Manchester which landed in Murcia, Spain, and the other from London Heathrow to Warsaw, Poland. Two Ryanair flights, one leaving Dublin and the other from Lisbon, were searched after landing in Rome following anonymous tips but no explosives were found, the BBC reported, citing sources at the city's Fiumicino airport. The sources said police bomb disposal experts carried out standard security protocols to ensure the safety of all passengers and crew, and the alert was then cleared.1
The UK government described those incidents as "malicious hoax threats." Aer Lingus said it would work to move the Dublin-Rome passengers to their final destination.1
