Austrian Airlines Plane From Tel Aviv Makes Emergency Landing in Sofia After Bomb Threat

An Austrian Airlines aircraft operating a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Vienna, Austria, made an emergency landing in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Sunday after a bomb threat. Bulgarian authorities and the airline confirmed the diversion.

According to a statement from Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport, the crew decided to land after receiving a threat of an explosion as the plane approached Romania. Passengers were evacuated from the aircraft after landing, Euronews reported.

The ministry said Bulgaria's air force scrambled a MiG-29 fighter to escort the airliner under standard procedure.

Flight details

The plane carried 51 passengers and six crew members. The Airbus A320 touched down in Sofia roughly half an hour after the threat was received, and security services then searched it. The airline said that once the inspection was complete, passengers would be rebooked onto other flights as quickly as possible.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft, registration OE-LZE, entering Romanian airspace at about 21:10, then turning south and heading back toward Bulgaria before landing in Sofia. Another flight-tracking platform, ADS-B Exchange, showed the plane transmitting code 7700, the general emergency signal, at around the same time.

The Transport Ministry said a crisis response headquarters had been set up and the competent authorities had opened an investigation.

Other recent incidents

The source also points to other recent aviation incidents. Late last month, the first officer on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked the captain and reportedly intended to crash the plane deliberately, but was stopped by the captain, passengers and crew. Last week, Croatia and Germany scrambled fighter jets after a signal indicating a hijacking was sent by mistake from a flight traveling from the Greek resort island of Corfu to the German city of Nuremberg.