Bomb threats forced at least 22 flights across Europe to divert or make emergency landings on Thursday, according to the report. The threats affected flights between Italy, Ireland, the UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, France, Greece, Serbia and Czechia.
Airlines involved included Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, Finnair, easyJet, Aegean Airlines, Iberia, Sky Express, Air Serbia and LOT. All flights landed safely, and searches found nothing suspicious.
Bomb threats emailed to airports in Rome and Sofia were signed "fighters of the Male State," according to sources at Aeroporti di Roma, which manages Rome's two airports, and a text seen by Agence France-Presse. The message said, "The explosion will occur in 60 minutes."
The Global airlines body Iata condemned the disruption and urged authorities to identify the origin of the threats. Nick Careen, Iata's senior vice-president for operations, safety and security, said, "Safety is the number one priority for the industry and we take all threats seriously."
The report says there is no intelligence yet pointing to any particular group or state actor. EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said it was too early to know whether the incidents were linked, but that any threats against civilians were unacceptable.
The affected flights were a small fraction of the 27,400 flights scheduled in Europe that day, according to Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency. The disruption followed cyber-attacks against supermarket refrigeration systems this week. A Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, called blaming Vladimir Putin's administration for the fridge hacks "absurd."