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Europe hoax bomb threats keep diverting flights, CNBC reports
CNBC reports more than two dozen malicious hoax bomb threats this week forced European flight diversions, with no attacks carried out and authorities split on how to respond.
- New headline Was: “Why a wave of bomb threats is proving so difficult for Europe's aviation authorities to contain”
- Our desk filed its story
A wave of bomb threats against passenger flights has forced diversions, emergency landings and military escorts across European airspace this week, CNBC reported Friday, citing authorities who described more than two dozen incidents as malicious hoaxes and said no attacks were carried out1.
Wilfried Covent, head of Covent Consulting, told CNBC the pattern was exceptional compared with typical one-off copycat threats and that in-flight claims against a specific flight number trigger international rules that require a prompt landing, evacuation and specialist searches1.
CNBC said national authorities lead threat assessments with airports, airlines and police, while air traffic control finds a landing site and EASA and the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority set broader safety rules for crew response1. Joji Waites of the British Air Line Pilots Association told CNBC airline assessors grade threats red, amber or green, but an amber verdict is not used if the plane is airborne1.
An EASA spokesperson told CNBC that diversions disturb a system built for predictability and raise workload for pilots, controllers and airports, and that trained staff keep the immediate safety threat from individual hoaxes low even as more diversions add strain1.
CNBC cited AP quoting Coventry University visiting professor Philip Baum that a single diversion can cost an airline as much as $250,0001. CNBC said some security analysts argue the callers may be state-backed actors aiming to disrupt public life, and that those callers have not been identified1.
John Edwards of Gates Aviation told CNBC governments will review why so many threats were treated as credible enough to divert aircraft1. Eric Schouten, a former Dutch intelligence liaison and Dyami CEO, told CNBC any change to procedures would take time, would not be made public, and that copycat hoaxes are not new1. Covent said assessment rules would not change quickly1.
