Bomb threats against aircraft were sent via emails

The bomb threats against the three aircraft that made emergency landings in Bulgaria on Thursday were sent via email. Their likely aim was to create panic. This was the opinion shared by the Director General of the Air Traffic Services Authority and experts.

The emails containing the bomb threats were sent before the three aircraft entered Bulgarian airspace. According to experts, those behind the threats may have wanted to test the procedures followed by European countries and gather information.

Meanwhile, an email threatening to plant a bomb in NOVA's building, as well as in buildings across Europe, was received by the media's email address before noon today. The sender claims to be one of the leaders of the group responsible for bomb threats against aircraft across Europe.

At Nova Broadcasting Group, the standard procedure for handling such situations was immediately put into effect without interrupting television and radio broadcasts. All employees have resumed their work following the necessary inspections by the competent authorities.

The offices of Irish media groups, including the national television and radio broadcaster RTE, were evacuated on Friday following bomb threats. One of the affected radio stations - Newstalk - resumed broadcasting at 10:00 GMT after staff were told they could return to the building in downtown Dublin, host Claire Byrne announced on air. The Irish Independent media group reported that its offices in the capital had also been evacuated.

Regarding the threats against aircraft, the director of the Bulgarian Air Traffic Control Agency commented that the electronic messages were sent by “unknown organizations” whose goal is to sow confusion. “Some of them were addressed to the mailrooms at our airports. Across Europe, there have been at least 24 such cases in the past week”, said Dyaksov. "We know for certain that one of them was leaving German airspace, while the other, from Copenhagen, was also outside our airspace, possibly over Poland", Dyaksov said. As for the aircraft diverted to Plovdiv, Dyaksov explained who made the decision. "The decision on which airport to use is made by the aircraft commander in coordination with the airline", he said.

According to experts, the threats could be classified as acts of aviation terrorism. They also offered their views on who might be behind them. "There are two countries in the world that have an interest in destabilizing Europe: the Russian Federation and Iran", said national security expert Colonel Asen Peychev.

"What are they trying to achieve? On the one hand, they want to exhaust resources, and on the other - to test how NATO member states respond", said cybersecurity expert Lyubomir Tulev.