Heathrow Airport said on Thursday 5 November it had received a bomb threat that was quickly deemed not credible, as a wave of coordinated hoax threats disrupted flights across Europe for the second time in a week.
In a statement reported by the BBC, Heathrow said there was "no risk to passengers, colleagues or the aircraft" and that "robust UK aviation security standards" were in place to assess and manage this type of situation. The airport did not identify which flight or area the threat concerned, and there were no reports of flights being cancelled or terminals being closed as a result.
Birmingham Airport also received a threat on Thursday. A Jet2 flight to Barcelona was taken back to the gate and searched by fire crews as a precaution, and passengers were moved to a replacement aircraft. Jet2 said nothing was found.
The UK incidents were part of a much larger pattern. According to the BBC and the Guardian, at least 21 to 25 flights across Europe were affected on Thursday, with warnings reaching airports and airlines in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Spain. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a French military air base, and fighter jets escorted aircraft into Italian and Bulgarian airspace. No explosives were found in any of the searches carried out.
Thursday's wave followed a similar episode on Tuesday that affected around seven flights, also with no explosives found. Rome airport authorities said they had received an email, purportedly from a group calling itself "Fighters of the Male State," threatening to "turn the skies red." The BBC's security correspondent said the name likely points to a banned Russian ultra-right group, though officials cautioned that even if the email is genuine, it is unlikely to identify who is actually behind the hoaxes.
UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the incidents a "malicious hoax" and said the government was treating the threats seriously, with established processes in place for handling hoax and malicious threats. The International Air Transport Association urged authorities to find the source of the hoaxes and reassured passengers that aviation security measures remain in place.
For passengers flying through Heathrow, the practical impact of Thursday's threat appears to have been minimal: the airport assessed the risk as not credible and reported no cancellations or closures. But the wider European disruption, including diversions and fighter jet escorts elsewhere, is a reminder that a hoax threat at another airport can still delay connecting flights or cause knock-on schedule changes.
What this means for your journey: if you are travelling through Heathrow over the coming days, build in extra time and check your airline's app for live updates, since disruption elsewhere in Europe could affect connecting flights. If you are getting to the airport, see our public transport (/public-transport/) and parking (/parking/) guides for current options.