Fighter jets scrambled after ‘bomb scare’ on Ryanair plane from Poland to Greece

Greek authorities said they did not find anything suspicious on board when the plane landed in Athens
Ryanair plane lands at Athens airport after bomb threat
Ryanair plane lands at Athens airport after ‘bomb alert’
REUTERS
Josh Salisbury22 January 2023

Greek warplanes were scrambled Sunday to escort a Ryanair flight from Poland to Greece after a possible bomb alert.

Police searched a Ryanair flight that landed at Athens International Airport on Sunday evening for any suspicious items, but did not find anything.

The pilot of the Boeing 737 aircraft, with around 190 passengers on crew on board, had earlier raised an alarm over a possible explosive device, according to Greek police.

The flight operated by Buzz, a Polish subsidiary of Ryanair, arrived at the airport around 3.40pm GMT after being escorted through Greek airspace by two Hellenic Air Force F-16 fighters.

The Boeing left Poland just over two hours late, flight tracking data shows

Police searched passengers as they disembarked the flight, with their luggage lined up outside the aircraft.

The plane was diverted over the sea as a precaution as it approached Athens.

Piotr Adamczyk, public relations manager at Katowice airport in Poland, told the AFP news agency they had received a telephone warning as the plane was flying over Slovakia.

“After the plane took off, there was a call to the airport information centre concerning the possible presence of an explosive device on board,” he said.

“We contacted air traffic control, which subsequently contacted the pilots”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in