At least 15 reports of explosives on board European aircraft were received on Friday.

Ireland’s police jointly with the defense ministry and European colleagues are investigating fake bomb threats triggering the evacuation of employees of several media outlets in Ireland.

Bomb threats on board planes

• As of 12:30 p.m. GMT, at least 15 European jets had made emergency landings in connection with reported bomb threats.
• Nine of them landed in the Czech Republic, the CTK agency reported.
• Four planes landed in France over bomb threats, AFP reported.
• Similar reports came from Romania and Italy.
• Security warnings were also extended to airports.
• As of now two such "security incidents" at European airports have been reported - in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Bucharest (Romania).
• According to the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), "the threat contained no concrete details."
• The bomb threat at Bucharest airport proved to be a hoax, Romanian Intelligence Service spokesman Ovidiu Marincea said.
• An SRI anti-terrorism team conducted a check, and no explosive devices were found, he was quoted as saying by the Agerpres agency.
• The Danish police stepped up security measures at Copenhagen airport over threats to air service.
• An investigation is underway, but no threats either to passengers or others at the airport have been identified, it said.

Threats to mass media

• The Irish police jointly with the defense ministry and colleagues from Europe are investigating false reports about bomb threats at media outlets’ offices, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said.
• Editorial staff of a range of media outlets, including the RTE television channel, the Irish Independent newspaper, the Newstalk, Today FM, Spin 1038, and 98FM radio stations, were evacuated amid bomb threats.
• According to Martin, there is no clarity as to who might be behind these threats, either individuals or a centralized coordinated group.
• However, in his words, these incidents might be linked with bomb threats on board planes.

Threats to government institutions

• Chisinau mayor Io Ceban said that a bomb threat to the building of the city administration had been received.
• According to the mayor, this might be a bogus threat geared to derail the presentation of a report.
• Later, Chisinau police spokesperson Crisrtina Talpa said that the anonymous bomb threat to the Chisinau mayor’s office had proved to be false.

European Commission’s reaction

• The European Commission triggered an information exchange mechanism between European Union countries to facilitate investigations of hoax bomb threats, European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told a briefing.
• She refused to comment on the possible cause of the incidents and who might be behind them, saying that this is the scope of responsibility of EU countries conducting investigations.

Scrambling fighter jets

• Hungary scrambled Grispen fighter jets to escort civilian jets in the country’s airspace amid bomb threats on board three times during the day.
• According to Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, this was done at the instruction of the NATO command.
• The first alarm signal came at 9:48 a.m. when an Airbus A321 was flying from Brussels to Sofia.
• Hungarian fighter jets began the escorting mission near the city of Kaposvar.
• After the passenger flight left Hungary’s airspace heading toward Serbia, NATO ordered a couple of fighter jets to continue patrolling near the Serbian border.
• Another call came at 10:33 a.m. to report bomb threats on board of two passenger flights from Prague. One was flying to Cyprus, the other one - to Bucharest.
• Both left Hungary’s airspace at 10:45 a.m. toward Romania. NATO ordered to continue patrolling the Hungarian-Romanian border.

Situation around anonymous bomb calls

• In recent days, aviation authorities in various countries have received dozens of anonymous reports claiming that bombs have been planted aboard passenger planes flying on routes within Europe.
• Some planes had to make emergency landings.
• Neither of the threats have been confirmed until now, with no explosive devices being found.

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