At least 18 more flights, and 0.0674% of Friday's European sky

A fresh wave of bomb threats disrupted at least 18 flights to or from Bulgaria, Czechia, France, Italy, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania, the UK and Portugal on Friday; the planes landed safely and searches found no explosive devices¹. Danish police also investigated a threat against Copenhagen airport, which said it was operating normally¹. The alerts followed Tuesday and Thursday waves that forced at least 35 flights to be diverted or searched¹.

The arithmetic of disruption. Eurocontrol scheduled 26,709 flights in Europe on Friday; the affected services were 0.0674% of that total, the Guardian reported¹. Hungary scrambled fighter jets three times to escort civilian flights, defence minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said¹. Knock-on delays mattered to passengers; they did not close the network.

Who and why, still open. Investigators have said there is no evidence so far that the hoaxes are orchestrated by a hostile terror group or state actor such as Russia or Iran, though inquiries continue¹. Some Thursday threats were signed “fighters of the Male State”, a Russian far-right movement¹. Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, told TVE the pattern looked like “hybrid aggression” and “psychological warfare”¹. Separately, Irish media newsrooms were evacuated after threats, and Sky in Britain reported a security threat to authorities¹.

For you. If you fly this weekend, build slack for a possible diversion or secondary search; the probability for any one flight remains low¹. Treat unsolicited threat messages as a matter for the airline and police, not for social media. Procedure — land, search, resume — is working. That is the constructive fact inside a frightening week.