European airlines faced a new wave of bomb threats on Friday in the third such incident within a week, with multiple flights targeted across the continent and three aircraft escorted by Hungarian fighter jets.
Fighter Jets Escort Targeted Flights
Friday’s disruption affected flights heading to and from Lisbon, Rome, Prague, and Sofia, according to authorities. A Ryanair flight scheduled to depart Lisbon for Rome received a specific threat, the airline stated. AFP reported that at least 11 flights were targeted in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, while France confirmed at least four of its flights received threats before landing safely. No explosives were discovered on any of the aircraft by Friday. These incidents follow earlier disruptions this week that impacted nearly 30 aircraft and several airports across Europe, which the UK government characterized as a malicious hoax.
Media Organizations Evacuated
Concurrently with the aviation alerts, several prominent media organizations received security warnings and were evacuated, including Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ, the Irish Independent newspaper, and the Dublin offices of radio stations NewstalkFM and TodayFM. UK broadcaster Sky also reported receiving a security threat. Irish police confirmed they were monitoring threats made against media entities domestically and across Europe. Although no concrete connection has been established between the airline warnings and the media threats, the Irish government described the situation as a likely coordinated campaign of disruption.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin called the developments worrying and emphasized that public safety remained the government’s primary concern, noting that Ireland is set to host two high-profile European Union meetings in Dublin the following week. Meanwhile, the Russian extremist group Male State, previously implicated in hoax threats targeting Italian airports earlier in the week, denied any involvement. Representatives for the group dismissed the allegations through a Telegram channel linked to founder Vladislav Pozdnyakov, stating that the organization has been defunct for years.
