Bulgarian border police said they received an emailed warning on Tuesday morning claiming an explosive device was on a plane flying from Bergamo, according to a statement sent to the BBC. The aircraft landed at Sofia Airport and was searched by officers from the Specialised Counter-Terrorism Unit (SOBT) and the General Directorate of Border Police (GDBP), and nothing was found, the statement said.
The same message also named a flight arriving from Dublin, which the BBC reports landed at Sofia Airport later the same day. That plane was searched as well, with four police dogs assisting the officers, according to the border police statement.
In a separate statement to the BBC, Bulgaria's Ministry of Interior said the aircraft, passengers, crew and luggage on both flights were checked and no explosive devices were located.
Why it matters
The searches at Sofia are part of a wider pattern of disruption reported across Europe on Tuesday. The BBC's headline on the story refers to seven planes being searched following suspected bomb threats, though the reporting summarized here details only the two aircraft handled in Bulgaria.
Even when a warning turns out to be false, an emailed threat against a flight forces an immediate and costly response: aircraft are taken out of service, passengers and baggage are screened again, and counter-terrorism officers are deployed. The fact that Bulgarian authorities described the checks as complete and negative is the key operational detail — it means the disruption at Sofia did not escalate into a confirmed security incident.
How the two searches unfolded
According to the border police account given to the BBC, the warning arrived by email at roughly 10:35 local time, which is 8:35 GMT. It named the flight from Bergamo, in Italy, as carrying a device.
That aircraft touched down at Sofia Airport at 11:10 local time. Officers from SOBT, Bulgaria's specialised counter-terrorism unit, and the GDBP carried out the inspection and found no explosive device, the statement said.
The email also referred to what the border police described as a similar threat against a flight from Dublin. That plane landed at Sofia at 13:35 local time and was inspected by the same units, this time with four police dogs brought in to help, according to the statement.
The interior ministry's separate account to the BBC broadened the scope of what was checked: not just the aircraft themselves but also the people on board, the crew and the luggage. Its conclusion matched the border police's — no devices were found on either flight.
What the record shows — and what it doesn't
The material available does not say how many passengers were on either flight, which airlines operated them, or whether the planes were delayed beyond the time needed for inspection. It also does not identify who sent the emails or whether Bulgarian investigators have linked the two warnings to a single sender, though the border police statement indicates both were mentioned in the same message.
The BBC's reporting frames the Sofia searches as part of a broader set of suspected bomb threats affecting seven planes around Europe. Details of the other aircraft searches were not included in the summary of that reporting, so it is not possible from this material to say which countries, airports or flights were involved beyond the two in Bulgaria.
What is documented is the sequence in Bulgaria: an email in the late morning, a landing shortly after 11:00, a second landing in the early afternoon, and two inspections involving counter-terrorism officers, border police and dogs, both ending with the same finding.
Authorities have not said whether the emailed warnings are being treated as a coordinated hoax, and no arrests or suspects have been disclosed in the statements provided to the BBC.
Watch for updates from Bulgarian police and the interior ministry on whether the emails are traced to a sender, and for further detail from the BBC on the other flights searched elsewhere in Europe.
