OMM Newsroom
Passenger flights across Europe received new bomb threats on Friday, Nov. 6. The third such incident in a week has raised concerns about a possible coordinated campaign and what some have called a “hybrid aggression, a form of psychological warfare.”
No explosives were found, and all the affected aircraft landed safely, AnewZ reported.
Danish police said they were investigating threats targeting flights from Copenhagen Airport, but passengers were believed not to be in danger. Czech police said nine flights departing from or arriving in Prague had been threatened. None of the flights was canceled.
A Wizz Air flight from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice, where it landed safely. The French prime minister’s office said four more threats had been recorded against aircraft flying in French airspace. CNN Portugal reported that a security operation was launched after a bomb warning targeting a Ryanair flight from Rome to Lisbon.
Incidents were also reported on Nov. 6 at Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague, Czech Republic.
Third wave of threats in a week
Threats sent on Thursday forced at least 15 flights in Europe to divert or make emergency landings. Similar incidents on Tuesday affected seven aircraft.
On Thursday, fighter jets from Italy, France and Bulgaria were scrambled. Military aircraft escorted at least five flights. British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the threats “malicious hoax alerts.”
European Union Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said it was too early to draw conclusions about who was responsible.
Investigation seeks to identify those behind the threats
A source at an Italian airport said messages sent to airports in Rome and Milan, as well as to airlines, claimed they had been sent by “Male State fighters.” Reuters said it could not verify the sender’s identity.
Vladislav Pozdnyakov, founder of a Russian anti-feminist movement established in 2016, denied any connection and said the group no longer existed.
Security experts said the incidents bore signs of a coordinated “hybrid” attack. They also did not rule out copycat threats or personal grievances as possible causes.
European officials have previously accused Russia and Iran of carrying out hybrid attacks. Moscow and Tehran deny the accusations.
Before the latest aircraft threats, unidentified hackers had disrupted supermarket refrigerators in several European countries earlier in the week. Some experts suggested the bomb threats could be part of a broader, low-cost disruption campaign designed to make it harder to identify those responsible.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno said the scale and similarity of the incidents indicated that they were not separate, unrelated events.
In an interview with Spanish broadcaster TVE, Albares described the incidents as “a form of hybrid aggression and psychological warfare.” He said it could not be a coincidence that so many incidents followed the same pattern, and that Europe should be prepared for further disruption.
