Tel Aviv-Vienna flight makes emergency landing after bomb threat; Bulgarian Air Force scrambles MiG-29 fighter jet

An Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an emergency landing on Sunday (Oct 19) after it received a bomb threat. The plane was forced to divert to Bulgaria, according to Bulgarian authorities and the airline. Bulgaria’s transport ministry said in a statement that the Austrian Airlines crew decided to make an emergency landing in Sofia after reportedly receiving a bomb threat as they neared Romania. It also said that 51 passengers and six crew were aboard and all were evacuated from the aircraft after landing. A crisis response team has been set up and the relevant authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.

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According to the Haaretz newspaper, the threat came from an Austrian citizen who was not on board the flight. The Bulgarian air force scrambled a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the airliner as part of established procedures, the transport ministry said. After landing, a security search of the aircraft — an Airbus A320 — was launched. “Once the search of the aircraft is complete, the passengers will be rebooked onto alternative flights as quickly as possible,” the airline said.

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This comes after last month the copilot of a flybubai flight headed to Tel Aviv from Dubai attacked the captain, planning to intentionally crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, but was stopped by the captain, passengers and crew. The incident has sparked calls for a closer look at Israel’s aviation safety regulations as well as accusations that Transportation Ministry authorities have long ignored warnings about the risks from foreign airlines flying into Israel. Last week, a Delta flight that landed at Ben Gurion Airport was cleared after an anonymous report alleged that a “suspicious” device was on board. Also last week, Croatia and Germany both scrambled fighter jets after a commercial flight from the Greek holiday island of Corfu to the German city of Nuremberg accidentally sent out a hijacking alert.