Russia is suspected over hoax bomb threats that grounded seven jets across Europe, including three flying from Britain
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 seven passenger jets were targeted across Europe on Tuesday in what aviation security expert Paul Mason called "a very deliberate act by a typical actor" — with Russia now the prime suspect. A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Heathrow was packed with Jewish schoolchildren, aged 16 and 17, returning from Holocaust education visits to Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek when it was diverted to Warsaw-Modlin airport. Four Ryanair flights were among those targeted, with one from Dublin escorted to Rome by the Italian Air Force after an anonymous tip-off.
The wave of threats follows a suspected Russian cyber-attack on refrigerators and freezers across seven European countries in recent days.
A Manchester-to-Murcia Ryanair passenger, Sarah Jones, said the evacuation was 'quite traumatic' — passengers spent three hours in an airport hangar in the heat.
UK Counter-Terrorism Policing says it has 'no active investigation' into the incidents, while the government called them 'malicious hoax threats'.
