Flights halted after bomb threats - what happened?

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Eoghan Corry (0:15)

The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk with Kiya.

Shane Colman (0:24)

Now, let's turn to that story that several flights across Europe have been forced to emergency land for receiving bomb threats. So far, seven planes have been affected in the last 24 hours. All seven, we should say, have been confirmed to be alarms, according to reports. A Ryanair flight from Dublin was escorted by the Italian Air Force until it landed in Rome. It was also, I think, a flight from Dublin to Sofia as well. But let's get the latest on this. We're joined by aviation and travel journalist Eoghan Corry. Eoghan, just bring us up to speed on what's happened.

Eoghan Corry (0:53)

Yeah, make that eight. There's a lot of speculation. Very few facts about what happened today.

I do, the bomb threats went out early this morning, and they were taken with very degrees of seriousness by different airports. There are protocols for this. Obviously, every email with a bomb threat doesn't cause aircraft to be escorted by fighters. What they do is they assess how serious the threat is.

One of the things that happens across Europe is that everybody will have a slightly different process, and the process will vary from state to state, from military to military. Usually, it's passed from the airport to the local police authorities, and sometimes to the more the militant and the intelligence public, the state intelligence agencies. What we had yesterday was one in Poland, and I think that probably heightened the tension a little bit across Europe. And as you say, a Ryanair aircraft from Dublin, Escortus, through Italian airspace, another Ryanair to Sofia was also checked. There doesn't seem to be too much drama about that one. But all in all, five Ryanair aircraft today, not the best day for the airline. And one more serious incident with a lot of Polish airlines, which caused Warsaw Modlin Airport to be closed down for a little period. A little bit of a disruption, not a hell of a lot. And as I say, very few facts.

Shane Colman (2:24)

Yeah. People will be wondering, are these connected with what happened in Italy? I think it was yesterday's bomb threats to 279 schools with the issue with supermarkets here. I mean, is this part of a hybrid war? I suppose people will be wondering. I suppose it's impossible to know at this stage.

Eoghan Corry (2:45)

You see, the real danger here is that a state agency, a state player would get involved and there's no shortage of people making allegations that that's already happened.

You know, the bomb, the usual casual and no local nutcase giving a bomb threat, that generally hasn't happened, hasn't caused disruption. You also got to remember how safe European airspace is. Lockerbie back in early 80s was the last time we had an actual bomb explosion in European airspace that caused fatalities. So all of this, the background of this is that there's so much with threats and with cyber attacks and with the advent of AI that somebody, a state player, can do a lot of damage with bomb threats. We saw that a couple of years ago when a Ryanair aircraft was diverted into Belarusian to cause the arrest of a dissident there. And that looked like, without making that assumption, but it looked like and the ICAO came up with the conclusion that it was a state player that issued the bomb threat to cause the diversion. That's what people are fretting a little bit about tonight. And I think the ace aircrafts that were diverted today, I'm not sure that scale of alarm would have happened without the incident yesterday. And I do fear that there might be a few more of this before it calms down.

Shane Colman (4:13)

OK, we should say all so far have been confirmed to be alarms.

Eoghan Corry (4:18)

Nothing false.

It's fairly hard to get anything through airport security in this day and age. It really is the highest level of safety that has to be issued. You know, passengers are safe when they get on an aircraft.

Shane Colman (4:30)

Eoghan Corry, Aviation and Travel Journalist, thank you indeed for talking to The Hard Shoulder.

Eoghan Corry (4:36)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. With Ciara. Weekdays at 4, on Newstalk. Conversation That Counts.