Bulgarian Air Force Crews Scrambled in Response to Bomb Threats against Three Passenger Aircraft

The Bulgarian Air Force’s standby forces and assets successfully carried out an Air Policing mission today, November 5, the Ministry of Defence announced.

The ministry said that three bomb threats involving passenger aircraft travelling to Bulgaria had prompted the crews of Bulgarian MiG-29 fighter jets on combat air patrol at the 3rd Air Base – Graf Ignatievo – to scramble.

New wave of bomb threats: Three aircraft make emergency landings in Bulgaria

The fighter jets took off at 10:11 to intercept and escort the three civilian aircraft.

One landed at Plovdiv Airport, while the other two landed at Vasil Levski Sofia Airport.

In incidents of this kind, acting on orders from NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre, Bulgarian fighter jets on Air Policing duty carry out missions to detect, identify and escort aircraft.