Hoax bomb threats force jets from Heathrow and Manchester into emergency landings as seven flights are grounded across Europe
A LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 737 like the aircraft carrying 181 passengers, including Jewish schoolchildren from a London school, that was diverted from its Heathrow-to-Warsaw route after a hoax bomb threat.A locator map of European flight routes, showing the countries affected by Tuesday's bomb threats, including the Ryanair jet from Manchester that landed under guard in Murcia, Spain.
At least eight passenger jets were forced to divert or make emergency landings across Europe on Tuesday following hoax bomb threats, with flights affected departing from or arriving at London, Manchester, Dublin, Copenhagen, Lisbon and Bergamo. No explosives were discovered on any of the planes. A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Heathrow to Warsaw, with 181 passengers aboard, was among those caught up in the chaos; the aircraft was carrying Jewish schoolchildren aged 16 and 17 returning home from a Holocaust education trip to Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek.
One mother said she felt 'absolute panic' on receiving a text that her 16-year-old son's flight had been diverted.
Aviation security analyst Matthew Borie said the concentration of incidents in Europe meant 'there could be a Russian angle', though Iranian hybrid warfare was 'just as active in certain pockets of Europe'.
Passenger Sarah Jones, a medic from Manchester on the Ryanair flight to Murcia, described the evacuation as 'quite traumatic' — left in 30-degree heat for three hours while sniffer dogs searched the plane.
