A KLM flight bound for Tel Aviv underwent a bomb-threat inspection during a scheduled stop in Bucharest on Thursday, and Romanian authorities subsequently said the alert was not confirmed.
The Romanian Intelligence Service, known as SRI, said the aircraft inspection found no items of concern to its explosives specialists, according to Romanian national news agency AGERPRES. The agency quoted SRI saying the alert was not substantiated. Universul, citing News.ro, reported the same inspection outcome.
A scheduled stop, not a confirmed diversion
KLM confirmed the threat to Dutch news agency ANP, according to Trouw. Its report identified the service as flight KL416 from Amsterdam and said Bucharest was a planned stop on the way to Tel Aviv.
That distinction matters: the accounts describing the itinerary do not support saying the bomb threat diverted the aircraft to an airport it had not been scheduled to use. A Reuters report carried by The Jerusalem Post also described a Bucharest layover in its body, although its headline used the word “diverted.” This report follows the airline-attributed account of a scheduled stop.
Trouw reported that passengers and crew were able to leave the aircraft in Bucharest while it was checked. Its account said a decision on continuing the flight would follow the inspection. The reports reviewed do not establish the eventual departure time or arrival time in Israel.
Pilots requested an explosives inspection
SRI initially assessed the threat as false, but the pilots requested an explosives inspection after consulting the airline, AGERPRES reported. The security procedures covered the aircraft, passengers and checked baggage. The later negative inspection result is more definite than that initial assessment, but it does not identify who sent the threat.
The incident came amid other bomb alerts affecting flights in Romania and elsewhere in Europe. Romanian authorities also checked a Wizz Air aircraft arriving from Milan earlier Thursday and said that threat was not confirmed. The passenger and crew totals reported for that separate Wizz Air incident should not be read as counts for the KLM flight.
No perpetrator or common cause for the KLM alert is established in the sources cited here. A reported bomb threat is not evidence that an explosive device was aboard. For travelers, the confirmed development is a security inspection during a scheduled Bucharest stop, followed by the Romanian authorities’ statement that the alert was not substantiated.
JBizNews Desk | Global & Travel
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