Bomb Threats Disrupt European Flights; Aer Lingus Plane Diverted to France

Threats trigger searches across Europe

November 5, 2026 · 6:40 a.m. Central / 1:40 p.m. in France

Bomb threats disrupted passenger flights across Europe on Thursday, sending some planes to alternate airports and prompting security searches at others. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base near Évreux, France, where it landed safely.

More than a dozen flights were targeted, The Associated Press reported. Some landed at their planned destinations. Authorities and airlines reported no explosives in the inspections described by Agence France-Presse; the situation was still developing.

French authorities said all 151 passengers and six crew members aboard the Aer Lingus flight were safe, AP reported. The airline said it would work to get customers to their destinations.

Diverted, escorted or searched

French fighter jets escorted the Aer Lingus aircraft, while Italian fighters accompanied a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome, AFP reported. The Finnair plane landed in Rome and a spokesperson said nothing unusual was found.

Three Ryanair flights headed to Sofia, Bulgaria, were also targeted. Two landed there; one from London Stansted diverted to Plovdiv. Bulgarian authorities said all three were inspected and no explosives were found, according to AFP.

In another case, a LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw landed in Brussels as scheduled, and a search found no hazardous or suspicious items, AP reported. The routes and responses varied, and the same outcome cannot be assumed for any incident not yet checked.

Where the Aer Lingus flight landed

The plane was diverted to a military air base near Évreux, west of Paris in Normandy. The star marks the approximate Évreux area rather than the precise aircraft location.

A week of alerts

Dates are local to Europe.

1. November 2A Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Sofia diverted to Budapest after a bomb threat, AFP reported.
2. November 3Multiple European flights were targeted by threats that proved to be hoaxes, according to AP. One London-to-Warsaw flight diverted to Warsaw-Modlin; Newstro reported on that incident.
3. November 5A new set of threats prompted diversions, escorts and inspections. Authorities had not established a common source or motive in the reporting reviewed.

Reporting on X

NBC News reported the wider disruption in a November 5 post. Its post is a report on the same events, not independent evidence for every individual threat.

Read NBC News’ post on X

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Sources and visual credits

Associated Press: flight threats · AFP: airlines and authorities · Reuters: flight-by-flight summary · NBC News on X.

Hero and thumbnail: generated conceptual illustration, not a photograph of an actual aircraft or incident. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.