Hoax bomb threats disrupt 20+ European flights in a single week

Europe's skies had a rough week. At least 15 commercial flights dealt with bomb threats on Thursday alone, pushing the week's total past 20 and forcing at least one jet to land at a military base in France, according to CBS News. No explosives turned up on any of the aircraft, and every threat so far appears to be a hoax — but the sheer volume has rattled airlines and passengers alike.

It didn't start Thursday. British authorities waved off threats to roughly seven flights earlier in the week as hoaxes, then the numbers ballooned. Aircraft were searched, routes were rerouted, and an Italian fighter jet scrambled to escort one plane. Some of the threats arrived at airlines by email, though officials haven't confirmed the nature of every message.

Aviation security expert Paul Mason told the BBC that threats like these simply don't land this often, calling the week's barrage unusual. To him, the pattern smells intentional: the messages were made in a credible enough way across a wide spread of airlines to suggest a deliberate act rather than a pile of coincidental malicious calls. The U.K. government, meanwhile, insisted Tuesday that Britain runs one of the most robust aviation security systems in the world, with tested processes for handling both real threats and hoaxes.

Nobody has claimed responsibility, and no government has publicly named a culprit. But the timing lands squarely in a season of anxiety over hybrid warfare in Europe. MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum said in October that Russia remains the top aggressor, escalating hybrid tactics while carefully staying under NATO's Article 5 threshold. He also flagged Iran's use of criminal proxies to intimidate dissidents, Iranian media outlets and Israeli sites, part of a wave of arson and sabotage aimed at Jewish communities and, increasingly, harder targets like military sites.

The week brought more than flight scares. Poland launched a large-scale security operation along its border with Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, with the prime minister saying suspicious activity on the Russian side may have preempted a serious provocation. Separately, cyberattacks have hit European grocery chains' refrigeration systems and even French blood banks, forcing thousands of pounds of food to be thrown out. French authorities said security systems kept any stored blood from being lost.

Many recent attacks abroad have been claimed by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which U.K. authorities have sanctioned and tied to Iran's Quds Force. A CBS News investigation in March found the group appeared linked to Iran. Irish MEP Barry Andrews connected Thursday's diverted Aer Lingus flight to Rome to the broader pattern, noting it came ahead of a major European summit in Dublin next week and asking whether anyone still doubts Ireland faces serious security threats.