German fighter jets escorted a Ryanair Boeing 737 from Sofia to London on 11 August after a false emergency call claimed there was a Palestinian passenger on board planning to “do bad things,” the state news agency BTA reported.
The aircraft, carrying 174 people, was already over Serbia when the alert was received via the 112 emergency number. The call prompted notifications to Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport coordination centre and air traffic control.
The flight’s captain and the airline decided against an emergency landing and continued to London. Bulgaria’s crisis headquarters at Vasil Levski Airport ordered additional security measures, Transport Minister Grozdan Karadzhov said in response to a BTA query.
Authorities later identified the caller as a Bulgarian man from Plovdiv. His ex-wife and two daughters were on the flight. Border police checks found no Palestinian or Pakistani nationals on board.
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