An Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna has made an emergency landing in Bulgaria after the crew received a reported bomb threat, according to the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport. Al Jazeera reported that flight OS82 was near the Romanian border when the threat was received on Sunday, prompting…...
An Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna has made an emergency landing in Bulgaria after the crew received a reported bomb threat, according to the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport.
Al Jazeera reported that flight OS82 was near the Romanian border when the threat was received on Sunday, prompting the crew to divert the Airbus A320 to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence said a MiG-29 fighter jet from the country’s air force escorted the aircraft to Sofia Airport.
The Bulgarian Transport Ministry said initial information indicated that six crew members and 51 passengers were on board the plane, adding that all had disembarked.
The airline told the AFP news agency that a security search of the aircraft was under way following the incident.
“Once the search of the aircraft is complete, the passengers will be rebooked onto alternative flights as quickly as possible,” the airline said.
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The Bulgarian Transport Ministry added that a crisis response team had been established and relevant authorities had launched an investigation into the reported threat.
Flight-tracking website FlightAware showed that Austrian Airlines flight OS82 departed Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv at 6:46pm local time (15:46 GMT) on Sunday and landed at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport at 9:43pm (18:43 GMT), about three hours later.
Data from Flightradar24 indicated that the aircraft entered Romanian airspace at approximately 9:10pm (18:10 GMT) before turning south towards Bulgaria.
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Information from another flight-tracking platform, ADS-B Exchange, showed that the aircraft was transmitting squawk code 7700 around the same time. The code signals a general emergency.
Flydubai Incident
The emergency landing comes after a separate incident last month involving a Flydubai aircraft carrying 174 passengers from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv.
A co-pilot allegedly attacked the pilot with an axe in an attempt to crash the plane, causing the aircraft to plunge approximately 17,000 feet (5,180 metres) before other pilots regained control.
Passengers and other crew members reportedly subdued the alleged attacker before the aircraft was diverted to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, northwestern Saudi Arabia, where it made an emergency landing.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said the co-pilot was on a “suicide” mission to crash the aircraft at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
The co-pilot, Hamam Al-Hammami, an Omani national, has since been charged with terrorism offences in the UAE.
Following the incident, the Israeli government ordered checks on the identities of all pilots flying into the country.