A LOT Polish Airlines flight that departed London on Tuesday morning bound for Warsaw was diverted to Modlin Airport near the Polish capital following a bomb threat. The aircraft was carrying 181 people, including a group of Jewish students aged 16 and 17 from a London high school who were traveling to Poland as part of a school delegation. Some of the students are Israelis living in London. After landing, the passengers were evacuated and local security forces began searching the aircraft.
The mother of one of the students told ynet: "The plane landed at an airport near Warsaw. They took the passengers off without their belongings and brought them in for security screening." According to her, the passengers were expected to continue to Warsaw by bus, without taking another flight.
A LOT Polish Airlines aircraft
(Photo: shutterstock)
According to a statement from Modlin Airport, the bomb alert was received at 9:54 a.m. Polish time, and the Boeing 737 MAX landed seven minutes later, at 10:01 a.m. The aircraft, operating flight LO286 from London Heathrow Airport to Warsaw Chopin Airport, was directed to an isolated area for security checks. Modlin Airport was temporarily closed following the incident before resuming operations. The area where the aircraft was parked remained under inspection. At the time of reporting, no official results of the searches had been released.
Separately, another bomb threat was reported Tuesday involving a Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw. The aircraft landed at Chopin Airport, where security personnel began investigating the threat. Airport operations continued despite the incident.
The two alerts came just a day after a Wizz Air flight from London to Sofia, Bulgaria, was diverted to Budapest on Monday following a bomb threat. A Hungarian Air Force fighter jet was scrambled to escort the passenger aircraft to its landing. No explosive device was found during the subsequent searches, and the incident was determined to be a false alarm.
Several similar incidents occurred last month on flights to and from Israel. On October 18, an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna was diverted to Sofia following a bomb threat. Five days earlier, passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines flight that had arrived at Ben Gurion Airport from New York were evacuated after an anonymous message warned of a bomb on board. That same day, the departure of another Delta flight from New York to Tel Aviv was delayed following a similar threat. No explosive devices were found in any of the three incidents.
Senior aviation industry officials told ynet last month that every bomb threat involving an aircraft must be treated seriously, even when the warning is anonymous. The response depends on several factors, including the source of the alert, the aircraft's location and the stage of the flight at which the threat is received. Depending on the circumstances, security authorities may order a change in flight path, a landing at an alternate airport or the isolation of the aircraft for security searches.