A fresh wave of hoax bomb threats targeted passenger flights across Europe on Friday for the third time this week, disrupting aviation operations and forcing the evacuation of Irish media outlets including national broadcaster RTE.
Authorities in Denmark, Czechia, France and Italy investigated multiple alerts involving inbound and outbound flights. Several aircraft were forced to divert or make emergency landings though no explosive devices were discovered and all planes landed safely.
In Dublin the RTE switched to pre-recorded programming after staff were evacuated so police and sniffer dogs could search the premises following a threatening email sent to multiple Irish and British media outlets.
Security experts and officials suspect the campaign is a coordinated effort to create psychological disruption. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares described the recurring alerts across multiple nations as a form of "hybrid aggression."
"It cannot be mere coincidence that so many incidents with exactly the same modus operandi are happening across Europe" Albares stated also urging the continent to prepare for further security challenges.
