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A flight from Israel to Vienna made an emergency landing in Bulgaria late Sunday after a bomb threat, with Bulgarian fighter jets escorting the aircraft to Sofia. All 57 people on board landed safely.
The Airbus A320, operating as flight OS82, was carrying 51 passengers and six crew members when the threat forced it to change course. Passengers were evacuated after landing as Bulgarian authorities launched security checks to determine whether the warning was credible.
Austrian Airlines received a warning from an Austrian citizen claiming a bomb was aboard the aircraft after it left Israel, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet. The person who reported the alleged threat was not on the plane.
Passengers told Ynet they had been informed of an anonymous bomb warning that forced the crew to abandon its original route to Vienna. Among those on board was a delegation of young people scheduled to address the United Nations, the Israeli outlet reported.
Bulgaria’s Transport Ministry confirmed that the crew received the warning while flying near the Romanian border and decided to divert to Sofia.
Bulgarian authorities scrambled MiG-29 fighter jets to escort the aircraft to the airport in an operation coordinated with NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Spain, the country’s Defense Ministry confirmed.
The plane landed safely at 6:42 p.m. GMT, according to a statement from the Lufthansa Group, Austrian Airlines’ parent company.
Security personnel began inspecting the aircraft after passengers were evacuated. Austrian Airlines said it would rebook passengers on alternative flights following the inspections.
Initial indications suggested the threat might have been a false alarm, although authorities had yet to announce the results of their investigation.
The diversion followed a similar incident involving a Delta Air Lines flight from New York that landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport last Tuesday.
Passengers were evacuated after an anonymous bomb warning, and authorities moved the aircraft to an isolated area for inspection. Subsequent security checks confirmed that the alert was false.
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