An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna diverted to Bulgaria on Sunday evening following a reported bomb threat. The aircraft, identified as Austrian Airlines 82, made an emergency landing at Vasil Levski airport in Sofia three hours after departing Ben Gurion Airport.
The plane was flying over Romania when it changed course to land in Bulgaria. A spokesperson confirmed there were 51 passengers on board the jet.
Austrian Airlines confirmed that a threat was made against the flight. The Bulgarian transport ministry stated that passengers were evacuated in Sofia and that the Bulgarian air force scrambled a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the airliner.
Authorities conducted a security search of the plane approximately 30 minutes after the alert was first raised. No injuries have been reported, and an investigation into the incident has begun.
Last month, a pilot attempted to hijack a Flydubai flight heading to Tel Aviv, which landed safely in Saudi Arabia. Croatia and Germany both scrambled fighter jets last week, while a commercial flight from Corfu to Nuremberg accidentally triggered a hijacking alert.
