Police Search a Lisbon to Rome Flight in a Hoax Bomb Scare as Observador Reports Two TAP Flights Were Also Targeted
The PSP searched a Ryanair plane in Lisbon on Friday after a bomb threat and found nothing. Observador reports that two TAP flights to Paris and Copenhagen were also threatened mid-air, on an FBI warning. Every threat so far has been a hoax.
A wave of hoax bomb threats against passenger flights across Europe reached Lisbon on Friday 6 November. The PSP (Polícia de Segurança Pública, the police force that runs security at Portugal's main airports) searched a Ryanair aircraft at Humberto Delgado airport, found nothing, and called the threat false. The same evening Observador reported that two TAP flights had also been threatened while in the air, and that the warning came to the PSP from the FBI. No threat in Portugal has turned out to be real.
What happened in Lisbon
According to the PSP statement quoted by Observador, at about 07:20 the police were told, "through international police cooperation mechanisms", of a possible bomb on Ryanair flight FR8197, which was due to fly from Lisbon to Rome using the aircraft arriving as FR8196 from Rome. The PSP activated the airport's security procedures with the airport operator and the airline. Officers from its Special Police Unit (UEP) searched the aircraft and found no explosive device or suspicious object. Passengers waiting to board, and their bags, were screened a second time. The flight left at 11:27, almost three hours late. The PSP said it was investigating where the threat came from.
The TAP report
Observador, citing its own reporting rather than any named official, says one TAP flight was heading for Paris Orly and another for Copenhagen when the threats arrived. It says the PSP put its protocol into action and told the French and Danish authorities, that a real risk was ruled out in both cases, and that both flights continued to their destinations. Observador also says the FBI passed the information directly to the PSP in all of these cases. The PSP's public statement mentioned only international police cooperation. Neither the PSP nor TAP had confirmed the TAP threats on the record when we published, and no flight numbers have been given.
Observador's headline speaks of an "elevated" alert. In the article that word describes a "high level of concern" among the security forces and intelligence services, attributed to unnamed sources. It is not a change to Portugal's official terrorism threat level, and the Internal Security System (SSI) has published no statement on the threats.
A Europe-wide pattern
Portugal is one of many targets. Observador counted threats on 24 flights in a week, 18 of them on Thursday 5 November, when a Ryanair flight from Porto to Milan Malpensa was inspected by Italian police on landing and an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a French air base. No explosives have been found on any aircraft. The European Commission has activated an information-sharing mechanism between member states, and its spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said: "We take these threats very seriously." Investigating them remains a matter for each member state.
What it means for you
- Every threat so far has been a hoax, but each one costs time: the Lisbon to Rome passengers waited almost three hours and went through security twice.
- None of the official statements we read (the PSP on the Lisbon flight and the European Commission) announced new rules or extra screening for passengers. Observador saw no visible increase in police presence at Lisbon airport on Friday morning.
- If your flight is delayed by a security search, check with your airline about your rights. Our report on the new EU flight delay rules explains what changes in 2027.
