An Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an emergency landing in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday 18 October after its crew received a bomb threat. Bulgarian authorities said no one was hurt. The nature of the threat, and whether it was substantiated, have not been stated.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320 operating flight OS82, carried six crew and 51 passengers, all of whom had disembarked, Bulgaria's transport ministry said. The plane was near the Romanian border when the crew received the threat and decided to land in Sofia. Flight-tracking data indicated the aircraft was transmitting the general emergency code, showed it entering Romanian airspace at about 9.10pm local time before turning south back towards Bulgaria, and recorded it departing Tel Aviv at 6.46pm and landing at Vasil Levski Airport at 9.43pm.
Bulgaria's defence ministry said a MiG-29 fighter jet escorted the plane to the airport. The airline said a security search of the aircraft was carried out and that passengers would be rebooked onto other flights as quickly as possible once it was complete. The transport ministry said a crisis response team had been set up and that the relevant authorities had launched an investigation.
The incident comes after a serious in-flight attack in September. A co-pilot on a Dubai-based airline's flight allegedly attacked the pilot with an axe, and the plane dropped about 17,000 feet before other pilots regained control and diverted to Saudi Arabia. UAE authorities said the co-pilot, an Omani national, was on a suicide mission to crash the plane at Ben Gurion airport, and he has been charged with terrorism offences in the UAE. Israel responded by ordering identity checks on all pilots flying into the country.
