Hoax bomb threats in Europe: new wave of alerts hits flights including LOT and Wizz Air

On Thursday 5 November 2026, authorities in several European countries received reports of bombs on board passenger planes. According to BBC, cited in the news feed, at least 21 flights were affected. The UK government described the incident as a "malicious hoax threat".

I could not access the BBC article, so the details below come from Polish media that covered the same events.

What happened on 5 November

The alerts included a PLL LOT plane flying from Warsaw to Brussels, which landed at Zaventem airport. LOT spokesman Krzysztof Moczulski told PAP that the inspection found nothing dangerous or suspicious.

Reports also came from other countries:

• in Italy, two planes landed safely at Malpensa airport: Aegean Airlines from Thessaloniki and Ryanair from Porto,
• in Bulgaria, the alert covered three Ryanair planes, including one flying from London, which was diverted to Plovdiv,
• in Romania, a Wizz Air plane from Milan to Bucharest was checked; 182 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated, followed by a pyrotechnic inspection,
• in the Czech Republic, police received reports of a threat on four planes flying to Prague; no explosives were found after landing.

Polish media also reported an alert on a Wizz Air plane from Milan to Warsaw. The European Commission, as reported by RMF FM, activated an information-sharing mechanism between member states.

Earlier reports

This was not the first such series. On Monday 2 November 2026, a Wizz Air plane from London to Sofia was diverted to Budapest, accompanied by a Hungarian Gripen fighter jet. The threat was not confirmed.

On Tuesday 3 November, threats targeted four Ryanair flights (Manchester to Murcia, Lisbon to Rome, Dublin to Rome and Dublin to Sofia), a SAS flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw, a LOT flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw and a Wizz Air flight from Bergamo to Sofia. All the alerts turned out to be false. A Bulgarian official said that in earlier cases, traces of the messages had led to IP addresses outside Bulgaria.

What this means for you

The flights covered by the alerts included routes from the UK: London to Sofia, London Heathrow to Warsaw and Manchester to Murcia. People planning to travel, especially to Poland and Central Europe, should check their flight status with the airline. Inspections and diversions may cause delays. However, the sources do not report mass cancellations of flights from the UK.