Four aircraft flying to Prague faced bomb threats Thursday, prompting police inspections after landing as similar alerts disrupted passenger flights elsewhere in Europe.
Czech police assessed the threats as having low credibility but activated security measures with Prague Airport. Searches of all four aircraft subsequently found no explosives, police spokesman Josef Urban told Novinky.cz.
Václav Havel Airport remained operational throughout. Airport spokeswoman Denisa Hejtmánková told ČTK that traffic had not been restricted.
Police inspect aircraft after arrival
According to Novinky, the affected aircraft included two operated by easyJet, one by Ryanair and one by Austrian Airlines.
Police patrols, an explosives-detection dog and a mobile customs X-ray unit attended the airport. Its security committee also convened, the publication reported.
The aircraft were already bound for Prague; the security response did not mean they had been diverted there.
Officers said they were taking the reports seriously despite their low assessed credibility, while seeking to minimize the impact on passengers and airport operations.
Authorities have not established whether the Prague threats are connected to the other incidents reported across Europe, or identified who was responsible.
European flights diverted and searched
Elsewhere Thursday, an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome diverted to the Évreux military airbase in France following a bomb threat.
The aircraft landed safely, and its 151 passengers and six crew members were moved to safety while military bomb-disposal specialists examined it, the French prime minister’s office said, according to The Associated Press.
The incidents followed several days of similar disruption. On Tuesday, threats affected flights heading to Poland, Spain and Bulgaria, with all four aircraft covered in a Euronews report landing safely and no explosives found.
A SAS flight from Copenhagen was searched at Warsaw Chopin Airport, where one runway temporarily closed. A LOT service from London Heathrow diverted to Warsaw Modlin, which also temporarily shut during security checks. Both airports subsequently resumed normal operations.
The same report described an earlier Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Sofia that diverted to Budapest under Hungarian fighter escort, and an Austrian Airlines service from Tel Aviv to Vienna that diverted to Bulgaria on Sunday. No device was found aboard the Austrian aircraft.
The repeated alerts have produced different operational responses, ranging from inspections after normal landings to diversions and temporary airport closures. In Prague, Thursday’s checks were completed without restricting airport operations, according to the airport and police accounts.
