Two bomb alerts disrupt traffic at Polish airports

Deight bomb alerts involving aircraft bound for Warsaw today caused disturbances at the two airports of the Polish capital, leading to security operations that did not detect explosives.

The first alert involved a flight from SAS Scandinavian Airlines from Copenhagen to Chopin Airport in Warsaw.

After landing, the aeroplane was subject to security checks due to information on the possible presence of a dangerous object on board.

A runway was temporarily closed without affecting the overall operation of the airport.

The checks ended at 12:20 locals (11:20 in Lisbon), and the airport resumed normal operation.

The second alert concerned a flight from the Polish airline LOT from Heathrow Airport in London and initially scheduled to land at Chopin Airport was diverted to Warsaw-Modlin Airport, where it landed without incident.

Following a threat from a possible explosive device on board, Modlin airport terminated air traffic.

The passengers were removed from the plane, which was then subjected to security controls without any explosive device being found.

The airport was however reopened and resumed normal operation.

Meanwhile, there are two other incidents in European air traffic also caused by false bomb alerts, affecting a flight that made the Manchester-Murcia route (Spain) and another from Israel that landed in Sofia.

A plane from the Ryanair company from Manchester to the international airport of the Murcia Region in southeastern Spain also received a bomb threat on board, which alerted Murcia airport, where a crisis commission was set up.

According to sources from the Spanish Government, the plane landed at Murcia airport at 10:50 locals (09:50 from Lisbon) and, from that time, a wide security device composed of emergency services, National Police agents and experts from TEDAX (Techniques in Deactivation of Explosive Artifacts) was launched, without any explosives being discovered in this case.

Finally, an airplane from Israel made an emergency landing this Tuesday in Sofia following a bomb threat received by e-mail, the Bulgarian Government reported, which did not specify the destination or airline of the flight concerned.

The aircraft was routed to a parking area away from the terminal and other aircraft to be inspected, indicated the Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, Lyubomir Nikolov, reported BNR public radio.