site.btaPlane from Sofia to London Escorted by German Fighter Jets Due to Emergency Call

On Monday, an emergency call was made to 112 by a member of the public who claimed that a Palestinian passenger aboard a Ryanair Boeing 737, flight FR-9962 from Sofia to London Stansted, intended to "do bad things." The flight had 174 people on board. This was revealed in a statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadzhov, following a BTA inquiry about reports of a plane being escorted by German fighter jets in German airspace.

"The Coordination Center at Vasil Levski'Airport in Sofia and the Air Traffic Control  were immediately notified. At that time, the plane was already in Serbian airspace, over the Novi Sad region. The air traffic control supervisor in Serbia was also informed," according to the statement.

It was later determined that the person who made the report is a Bulgarian citizen from Plovdiv. "On the said flight were his ex-wife and their two daughters. A check by Border Police confirmed that there were no Pakistani or Palestinian citizens on board," Minister Karadzhov stated.

“The crisis response team immediately notified the airline and London Stansted Airport, as well as partner security services,” said Minister Karadzhov. The flight commander and the airline decided not to make an emergency landing and continued the journey to London as planned.

Following a decision by the crisis team at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, additional security measures were implemented. The aircraft was not allowed to enter Czech airspace, so it was redirected via a corridor over Germany, where it was escorted by fighter jets from the German Air Force.

The minister also confirmed that no security incidents were reported in the past 24 hours at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport.