The French and Italian Air Forces have had to respond to more commercial aviation bomb threats
This morning marked the third time in four days that fighter jets have been scrambled to divert aircraft due to bomb threats. Airlines involved include, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Finnair, Iberia, Aegean Airlines, Air Serbia and Aer Lingus.
The chaos began shortly before 9:00 am GMT with the diversion of an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin Airport (DUB) to Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport (FCO). It was diverted to Normandy as a security precaution.
At time of writing, the total number of flights that have been diverted today due to bomb threats was 20, but may still increase further.
The table below shows information on all of today's flights that were affected, according to data gathered by The Guardian, of those that have been identified. Please note that not all the affected flights were diverted, but all suffered a degree of disruption:
There are also a number of unidentified flights and cases where information is still yet to emerge. Four unidentified flights at Vaclav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) have been affected by bomb threats, which were first reported at 11:16 AM. Bomb threats also affected a further flight at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD), first reported at 1:37 PM.
This nightmarish day for European aviation began before 10:00 AM CET with the first bomb threat aboard an Aer Lingus Airbus A320 traveling from Dublin to Rome. A dramatic diversion followed, with a French military escort scrambling to guide the affected jet to landing at Évreux, a French air base in Normandy.
The jet, which had 151 passengers and six crew members onboard, landed at the air base safely, MiG Flug reports. For hours, explosives experts and dogs searched the plane and passengers were questioned in groups of ten.
Aer Lingus gave the following response to Simple Flying's request for comment:
"Aer Lingus flight EI402 from Dublin to Rome diverted to Normandy this morning as a security precaution. The flight landed safely and Aer Lingus will work to reaccommodate customers to their final destination as soon as possible."
To the south of France, the Italian Air Force has also scrambled its Eurofighter Typhoons to help deal with bomb threats. An emailed threat led two of the fighter jets to escort AY1761 from Helsinki in to land at FCO. The jet landed safely at 9:30 AM and police bomb disposal experts found nothing onboard.
Finnair has said that two of its jets were hit with "unfounded bomb hoax scares." The second aircraft affected was a service operated by Jettime. This plane took off from Helsinki and landed safely at Vienna.
The Italian Air Force was also active earlier this week because of these hoax bomb threats. The 4° Stormo at Grosseto Air Base scrambled to guide a plane in to land at Rome on November 3.
Much remains unclear after the worst day yet of bomb scares. The source of these bomb threats is unclear, along with whether more will occur in the future.