'Weaponising disruption.' Travel expert Eoghan Corry comments on recent European hoax bomb threats

A wave of bomb threats targeting commercial airliners is raising alarm across European aviation. Flights have been diverted, emergency procedures activated, and fighter jets scrambled, in some cases based on threats that ultimately proved to be false. But who is behind this apparent campaign, and are we witnessing a new form of hybrid warfare designed to disrupt European air travel and undermine public confidence? To assess the scale of the threat and the vulnerabilities it exposes, I'm now joined by aviation expert and travel journalist Owen Corey in Dublin. Good morning to you. Good morning, Stéphane. So what happens operationally when an aircraft receives a bomb threat? What procedures are immediately triggered? I think you've already, that is part of the problem, Stefan. We have over 500 civil airports in Europe. Usually a bomb threat comes to the airport, less so to the airline. And each airport is activating it using a separate set of protocols. The protocols aren't that scattered. It tends to be escalated to the local police force. And from there, very often to the state military intelligence or the military agencies. What we've seen on Tuesday and again yesterday, when we had over 20 flights affected, some very dramatically, others less so, is different airports reacting to what seems to be a blanket set of threats, almost weaponising disruption. Because this is designed to disrupt. This is not designed to blow up anything. If you're going to blow up anything, you're not going to put every airport in Europe on the highest state of alert. And some airports, Stefan, seem to be jumpier than others when these threats come in. And Owen, are airlines and airports sufficiently equipped to deal with a sustained campaign of false bomb threats? This is really weaponizing the threat of a bomb, because you've got to remember how safe European airspace is. For 40 years, nobody has got a bomb on board an aircraft. You have to go back to Lockerbie before you see anything like this happening. Airports have been very, very, very good at security and all the viewers will know exactly what it takes to get through airport security. Nobody really has a chance of getting a bomb on board. But what they've discovered is they can weaponise the threat of a bomb to disrupt what we need now It's a strategy that... When you escalate that bomb threat, who is assessing that it's a genuine threat? Because quite clearly, some of the airports in Europe are escalating threats, and there are hundreds of other threats that seem to be going in. This has emerged in the last two or three days that are not being escalated. I think at some stage, a little bit of talking to each other might be done. All right, Owen Currie, aviation expert and travel journalist, thank you for coming on the show this morning.