An Aer Lingus passenger jet flying to Italy has been diverted to France today following a bomb threat days after a series of hoaxes sparked chaos across Europe.
The office of French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu confirmed the situation on Thursday, adding it was monitoring the incident.
It comes just days after a string of hoax bomb threats sparked chaos at European airports, forcing flights around the continent to make emergency landings.
Flight EI420 left Dublin Airport at 06.20am on Thursday, scheduled for Rome Fiumicino Airport.
But around 90 minutes into the flight, the flight transmitted squawk code 7700, the international signal alerting to a general emergency on board.
The flight was subsequently diverted to the Evreux airbase in Normandy, France, after being escorted by fighter jets.
One person who was on the flight told the Daily Mail she was ‘panicked’ and ‘reading the bible’ as the situation unfolded.
The passenger, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the pilot initially said there was a technical problem on board, but once the plane landed, confirmed there was a ‘security threat named to the flight which has been deemed non credible.’
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An Airbus A320 Aer Lingus plane going from Dublin to Rome has been diverted to France’s Evreux airbase following a bomb alert
The passenger has said they were told a team are arriving to do a sweep of the plane and they must remain on board with the doors shut.
It comes as at least seven flights were targeted Tuesday morning with some forced to divert before being searched on the ground, while one Ryanair plane – from Dublin to Rome – was accompanied by an Italian fighter jet.
Two of the grounded flights took off from the UK before making unscheduled landings due to the mid-air security scares.
Bomb disposal experts at Rome’s Fiumicino airport searched two Ryanair jets – one originating from Lisbon and the other from Dublin – following anonymous tips regarding potential bomb threats.
A flight from Heathrow to Warsaw and a Ryanair service from Manchester to Murcia in southern Spain also received alerts.
Flights from Copenhagen to Warsaw and from Bergamo to Sofia were grounded after similar threats.
A Ryanair flight from Dublin to Sofia, carrying 185 passengers, received a warning and was searched on arrival.
And on Monday, a Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Bulgaria was threatened and had to be escorted by a fighter jet.
A LOT Polish Airlines passenger flight departed London Heathrow Airport Tuesday morning and headed for Warsaw Chopin Airport, but was diverted to Warsaw Modlin following the alert, which was announced at 9.54am local time. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 landed safely at 10.01am.
Some 181 passengers were on board, including a number of Jewish schoolchildren from Jews’ Free School (JFS), in north-west London, the Daily Mail understands.
The teens, aged 16 and 17, had been on a Holocaust education trip to the former concentration camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek, where millions of Jewish people were slaughtered by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
One mother, whose 16-year-old son had been on the plane, said she received a text from her boy saying his flight had been diverted.
Spanish officials confirmed a Ryanair plane from Manchester to Murcia airport in southern Spain came under threat
Passengers in Murcia airport following the bomb alert
‘In that moment I felt absolute panic and ran away from my desk to try to get hold of him,’ she told The Telegraph.
Spanish officials also confirmed a Ryanair plane from Manchester to Murcia airport came under threat, while Bulgarian media reported a flight from Bergamo was grounded in the capital Sofia after a bomb threat was received by email.
The Bergamo flight was operated by Wizz Air and was carrying 176 passengers. Bulgarian local media earlier reported that the plane flew from Israel.
Another threat was reported on an SAS flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw, which landed at Chopin Airport and was being checked.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
