LONDON – In the last few moments, a Ryanair flight, FR6385, was escorted into Athens by F-16s following a bomb threat against the flight.
FR6385 is a scheduled Ryanair flight between Katowice and Athens.
According to the Greek defense ministry, after arrival in Athens, the aircraft began proceedings of bomb inspection.
It is understood that before the aircraft entered Greek airspace, it was also escorted by Hungarian war aircraft.
FR6385 was operated by SP-RKB, one of Ryanair’s Boeing 737-8AS aircraft, which at the time of writing is six years old.
This is a developing story.
Updates From The Ryanair Bomb Threat…
UPDATE #1 @ 1658 UK time – It is unclear who the bomb threat has come from.
“The passengers have disembarked and are being inspected,” Greek police spokeswoman Constantia Dimoglidou told AFP.
“There were 190 people on board, including the crew. The plane will be checked after the passengers,” she said.
“The pilot informed the Athens control tower, but we don’t know where the information originally came from,” Dimoglidou said.
UPDATE #2 @ 1757 UK time – Some media outlets beginning to report there is no bomb onboard the aircraft. Unconfirmed still at this time.
UPDATE #3 @ 1811 UK time – Ryanair has released a comment on the incident:
“Crew onboard flight FR6385 traveling from Katowice to Athens (22 Jan) were notified of a potential security threat onboard and, in line with safety procedures, continued to Athens, where it landed safely before being met by the Greek authorities. Passengers disembarked normally while local authorities carried out an additional security check before clearing the aircraft to return to service.”
UPDATE #4 @ 1909 UK time – SP-RKB, the aircraft involved in the bomb threat, has departed from Athens, heading to Budapest.
