Austrian Airlines OS82 cleared after bomb threat prompts Sofia diversion
The bomb threat that diverted Austrian Airlines flight OS82 to Sofia was phoned to Vienna airport, Austria's interior minister said; security searches found nothing and the flight reached Vienna early on Monday.
Austrian Airlines flight OS82 “had to land in Sofia because of a threat that was made by telephone to Vienna airport”, Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a press conference in Vienna on Monday, declining to elaborate on who made the call. An investigation is underway.
The Airbus A320-200, flying from Tel Aviv to Vienna with 51 passengers and six crew, diverted to Sofia late on Sunday after the crew reported receiving a bomb threat as the aircraft approached the Romanian border, Bulgaria’s Transport Ministry said. Bulgarian Air Force MiG-29s scrambled to escort the plane down, in an operation coordinated with NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Spain, Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry said.
Haaretz reported the threat was “called in by an Austrian national who was not on board”; Ynet said early indications pointed to a false alarm, though authorities had yet to announce the investigation’s outcome. In a statement on Monday, Austrian Airlines said: “During the search of the affected aircraft, the passengers, and the crew, no danger was identified,” adding that the flight continued from Sofia to Vienna with all passengers after reboarding. Karner said the plane landed in Vienna in the early hours of Monday.
The scare follows last week’s security alert at Ben Gurion Airport, where a Delta flight from New York was searched — and cleared — after a report of a suspicious item on board, Haaretz and Anadolu reported.
Sources: Reuters via GMA · Haaretz · Al Jazeera · Anadolu
Earlier: Bomb threat forces Tel Aviv–Vienna Austrian Airlines flight to divert to Sofia
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