Bomb threat: MiG-29s escort Tel Aviv–Vienna flight to Sofia
Flight OS82 was diverted to Sofia airport on Sunday evening. The 51 passengers and six crew on board were evacuated.
Symbolic image · Photo: Toshonenov / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
An Airbus A320 operating flight OS82 from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an unscheduled landing in Sofia on Sunday evening after a bomb threat on board. According to the Air Force, the alert came at 21:17 while the aircraft was in Bulgarian airspace. The transport ministry said this happened near the Romanian border and the crew decided to land urgently in Sofia.
Duty MiG-29 fighters were scrambled under the Air Policing mission and escorted the plane to Vasil Levski Airport. The defence ministry said the operation was coordinated with NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre in Torrejón, Spain.
According to initial transport ministry figures, there were 51 passengers and six crew on board. They were taken off the aircraft, and the relevant agencies began inspecting the plane and the luggage. By late evening there was no word on whether anything dangerous had been found.