A Wizz Air passenger plane flying from the United Kingdom to Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary on November 2 due to a bomb threat on board, the publication London South East (LSE) reported.
The incident occurred on a flight travelling from London to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. After a bomb was reported on board, the airliner was directed to Budapest accompanied by a Hungarian Gripen fighter jet.
Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi wrote in a post on Facebook, the social network owned by Meta, that the passenger aircraft had been diverted to Budapest under the escort of the Hungarian Gripen fighter jet following the bomb report.
Budapest security checks and Hungarian air force escort
Hungarian authorities are conducting security checks on both the aircraft and its passengers in Budapest, and police officers are inside the plane. The Gripen fighter jet has returned to its base in Kecskemet.
Wizz Air is a Hungarian low-cost airline headquartered in Budapest that operates flights across Europe as well as to destinations in the Middle East and North Africa. The carrier runs regular passenger services between London airports and Sofia, the capital and largest city of Bulgaria, along a central European flight corridor that passes over Hungary.
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen is a Swedish-built single-engine multirole fighter aircraft operated by the Hungarian Air Force to patrol and defend the country's airspace. Hungary stations its Gripen fleet at the military air base in Kecskemet, a city in central Hungary located roughly halfway between Budapest and the country's southern border.
Earlier bomb threat on Vueling flight in Spain
The diversion in Hungary followed an earlier incident in which passengers aboard a Vueling passenger plane were evacuated in an emergency due to a bomb threat. That aircraft was flying on a route from Barcelona to Gran Canaria in Spain.
Vueling is a Spanish low-cost airline based in Barcelona in the northeastern region of Catalonia. The carrier operates domestic services across mainland Spain and to the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off northwestern Africa that includes the island of Gran Canaria, alongside flights across Europe.
