Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv makes emergency landing in Sofia after bomb threat

An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 traveling from Tel Aviv to Vienna was forced to land in Bulgaria on Sunday after the crew received a bomb threat. The aircraft, operating as flight OS82, was near the Romanian border when the warning was received, prompting the pilots to divert to Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

A Bulgarian Air Force MiG‑29 fighter jet escorted the plane to the airport. The transport ministry reported that the aircraft carried six crew members and 51 passengers, all of whom have since left the plane.

Austrian Airlines told the AFP news agency that a security sweep of the aircraft was carried out. “Once the search of the aircraft is complete, the passengers will be rebooked onto alternative flights as quickly as possible,” the airline said.

The ministry added that a crisis response team has been assembled and that relevant authorities have opened an investigation into the incident.

According to flight‑tracking data from FlightAware, OS82 departed Ben Gurion Airport at 6:46 p.m. local time (15:46 GMT) and touched down at Vasil Levski Airport at 9:43 p.m. local time (18:43 GMT), about three hours later. Flightradar24 showed the plane entering Romanian airspace at roughly 9:10 p.m. (18:10 GMT) before turning southward back toward Bulgaria. Data from ADS‑B Exchange indicated that the aircraft transmitted the emergency squawk code 7700 at that time.

The incident follows a separate emergency involving a Flydubai aircraft last month. That flight, carrying 174 passengers from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, was allegedly hijacked by a co‑pilot who attacked the captain with an axe in an attempt to crash the plane. The aircraft dropped about 17,000 feet before other crew members and passengers subdued the attacker and regained control. The plane was then diverted to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The co‑pilot, Omani national Hamam Al‑Hammami, has been charged with terrorism offenses in the UAE, and Israel has since ordered identity checks on all pilots flying into the country.