VIENNA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A bomb threat forced an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna to divert to Sofia late on Sunday, though a search found nothing dangerous so the plane took off again and flew onwards, the airline and Bulgaria's BTA news agency said.
BTA said the flight's crew reported receiving a bomb threat when the aircraft was approaching the Romanian border, and the Bulgarian Air Force scrambled MiG-29 fighter jets. Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the threat was "called in by an Austrian national who was not on board", without identifying its source.
Speaking at a previously scheduled press conference in Vienna with his Bulgarian counterpart, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said an investigation was underway but he was guarded when asked about the threat and who made it.
"This Austrian Airlines flight had to land in Sofia because of a threat that was made by telephone to Vienna airport," he said, declining to elaborate.
The plane was carrying 51 passengers and 6 crew, Austrian said. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said it was an Airbus A320-200 series aircraft, which Austrian's website says has a capacity of up to 180 seats.
It landed in Vienna in the early hours on Monday, Karner said.
"We confirm that there was a threat against flight OS82 on October 18, 2026, from Tel Aviv to Vienna (TLV to VIE), which made it necessary for the flight to make an intermediate landing in Sofia (SOF)," the airline said in a statement on Monday.
"During the search of the affected aircraft, the passengers, and the crew, no danger was identified," it said, adding that the flight continued from Sofia to Vienna with all passengers after reboarding.
Vienna Airport, the Austrian interior ministry and the Lufthansa Group, which owns Austrian Airlines, did not respond to requests for comment.
The incident took place less than three weeksafter a co-piloton an Israel-boundflydubai jet allegedly attacked the captain with anaxe in an attempt to crash the plane.
The United Arab Emirates' attorney general said last week an Omani flydubai co-pilot had intended to seize the September 30Dubai-Tel Aviv flight and crash it into a terminal at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in a suicide attack, before he was thwarted by the captain.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna, Anusha Shah, Abu Sultan and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates, Dave Graham, William Maclean)