Bomb Threat Forces Airline to Make Emergency Landing

A bomb threat was reported on an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna on Sunday, forcing the aircraft to divert to Bulgaria.

Bulgarian authorities and the airline announced the incident, AFP reported on Monday (19 October 2026). The Austrian Airlines crew decided to make an emergency landing in Sofia after reportedly receiving the threat as the aircraft approached Romania.

“Passengers were evacuated from the aircraft after it landed,” Bulgaria’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

“The Bulgarian Air Force deployed MiG-29 fighter jets to escort the aircraft as part of established procedures,” it added.

The airline said there were 51 passengers and six crew members on board. Flightradar24 data showed that the aircraft, registered as OE-LZE, entered Romanian airspace at around 21:10 before turning south and heading back towards Bulgaria, where it landed in Sofia.

Data from another flight-tracking platform, ADS-B Exchange, showed that the aircraft transmitted squawk code 7700, indicating a general emergency, at roughly the same time. The Ministry of Transport said a crisis response team had been formed and the relevant authorities had opened an investigation.

In a separate incident late last month, a co-pilot on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked the captain and allegedly planned to deliberately crash the aircraft, but was stopped by the captain, passengers and other crew members. Last week, Croatia and Germany scrambled fighter jets after a commercial flight from the Greek tourist island of Corfu to the German city of Nuremberg inadvertently transmitted a hijacking alert.