A flight that departed London Heathrow for Warsaw was diverted to a smaller airport on Tuesday morning after a bomb threat, part of a wave of suspected hoax threats against seven flights across Europe.
The LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, carrying 181 people, had been heading from Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin Airport when a threat was reported. Warsaw-Modlin Airport said in an official statement that the alert was declared at 9:54am local time and the aircraft landed safely at Modlin at 10:01am with around 3.7 tonnes of fuel on board. The plane was directed to a designated area of the airfield to wait for bomb disposal and security teams, and Modlin was closed to all traffic until further notice while checks were carried out.
The Heathrow-Warsaw flight was one of seven flights identified across Europe on Tuesday as targets of suspected bomb hoaxes, with others affecting routes from Dublin, Lisbon, Manchester and Bergamo, according to the BBC. The UK government described the incidents as "malicious hoax threats." Inspections of passengers, luggage and the affected aircraft found no explosives on any of the seven flights, and alerts were cleared through the day.
The Telegraph reported that the Heathrow-Warsaw service was one of at least two UK-linked flights targeted within 24 hours, as authorities in multiple countries investigated the source of the threats. Modlin Airport said passengers began disembarking into the arrivals hall once it was safe to do so, and that further updates would follow as operations resumed.
Heathrow's own departures were not disrupted by the diversion itself, since the aircraft had already left UK airspace when the threat was reported, but passengers on the affected LOT service faced a lengthy delay at Modlin before completing their journey to Warsaw by other means. Airlines have not said whether the hoax wave will affect schedules on Wednesday.
What this means for your journey: there is no indication this incident is affecting flights departing or arriving at Heathrow today, but security alerts of this kind can cause knock-on delays at short notice. If you are flying from Heathrow, check your airline's status page before you travel and allow extra time, especially if your route connects through an affected European airport. For getting to the airport itself, see our /public-transport/ guide.