Bulgarian MiG-29s escort three Ryanair jets after bomb threats

Bulgarian Air Force MiG-29 fighters escorted three Ryanair passenger aircraft on November 5 after bomb threats were made against the flights, the Bulgarian Defence Ministry said. No explosive devices were found on board after thorough checks, according to media reports.

One of the three aircraft landed at Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest airport; the other two diverted to Vassil Levski Sofia Airport. All three flights were operated by Ryanair, the Irish low-cost carrier.

The incident marks the second consecutive day of numerous bomb threats against civilian aircraft in European airspace. On November 4, two of the threatened aircraft were flying to Sofia.

How the response works

The Defence Ministry explained the mechanism behind the response. In such cases, Bulgarian fighters on air policing duty act under command from the NATO Joint Air Operations Centre, which directs alliance air-defence activity across Europe.

Their tasks are threefold: detecting the threatened aircraft, recognising it (confirming its identity in flight), and escorting it to a safe landing. Quick reaction alert missions of this kind exist precisely so that fighters can be airborne within minutes of a threat notification.

What does this change for the airlines and airports involved? In operational terms, a bomb threat forces a diversion, an immediate security inspection and a full passenger disembarkation — hours of disruption and cost, even when the threat proves false.

The Plovdiv landing

Bulgarian media reported that the aircraft which landed at Plovdiv was a flight from London. Three buses were sent to the airport to transport the passengers onward to Sofia, roughly a two-hour road connection that stood in for the interrupted flight.

The aircraft was directed to a remote area of the airport for inspection — a standard precaution that isolates a potentially compromised aircraft away from terminals and other traffic. Fire engines and ambulances were positioned at the scene under the standing action plan for such situations.

After thorough checks of all three aircraft, no explosive devices were found, media reports said.

A recurring pattern

The November 5 episode was not isolated. It followed a day of multiple similar threats against civilian aircraft in European airspace on November 4, two of them targeting flights bound for Sofia. The Defence Ministry's decision to publicly confirm the scrambles indicates the frequency with which Bulgarian fighters are being called on for this task.

For Ryanair, the operator of all three threatened flights, the immediate consequence was diversion and delay rather than damage. For Bulgarian and European authorities, the pattern raises the question of response capacity: every threat triggers the same chain — NATO command notification, fighter scramble, diversion, emergency services deployment and inspection — regardless of credibility.

The ministry has not said whether any individual or group claimed responsibility for the threats. With no devices found on any of the aircraft, attention now shifts to whether the string of threats across November 4 and 5 continues into the coming days.