Bomb threat forces Austrian Tel Aviv-Vienna flight to land in Bulgaria

After search finds no danger, passengers reboard and aircraft continues to its destination; Bulgaria scrambled fighter jets to escort airliner after it issued emergency squawk code

A bomb threat forced an Austrian Airlines flight carrying 57 people from Tel Aviv to Vienna to divert to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, late on Sunday, though a search found no danger, the airline said.

“We confirm that there was a threat against flight OS82 on October 18, 2026, from Tel Aviv to Vienna, which made it necessary for the flight to make an intermediate landing in Sofia,” the airline said in a statement on Monday.

“During the search of the affected aircraft, the passengers, and the crew, no danger was identified,” it said, adding that the flight continued from Sofia to Vienna with all passengers after reboarding.

Bulgaria’s BTA news said the flight’s crew reported receiving a bomb threat when the aircraft was approaching the Romanian border, and the Bulgarian Air Force scrambled MiG-29 fighter jets to escort the airliner.

The Haaretz newspaper reported that the threat came from an Austrian citizen who was not on board the flight.

The plane reportedly was carrying a delegation of young people who were due to speak at the United Nations.

According to data from the Flightradar24 tracking site, the aircraft entered Romanian airspace at around 9:10 p.m. before turning south and heading back towards Bulgaria, where it landed in Sofia.

Data from another flight-tracking platform, ADS-B Exchange, indicated that the aircraft was transmitting squawk code 7700 — a signal for a general emergency — at around the same time.

[SQ7700]
Operator: Austrian Airlines
Flight: OS82 / AUA82
Aircraft: A320 (OE-LZE)
Airbus A320
Route: TLV → VIE
From Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, Israel
To Vienna International, Austria

For the detailed information, access https://t.co/DipenPSOOD #squawk7700 #OS82 #OELZE pic.twitter.com/0spzP4Mr0u

— Squawk7700.com (@Squawk7700com) October 18, 2026

The incident came less than three weeks after a co-pilot on an Israel-bound flydubai jet attacked the captain with an axe in an alleged attempt to crash the plane.

The UAE attorney general said last week that an Omani flydubai co-pilot had intended to seize the September 30 Dubai-Tel Aviv flight and crash it into a terminal at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in a suicide attack, before he was thwarted by the captain and passengers.

The incident sparked calls for a closer look at Israel’s aviation safety regulations as well as accusations that Israel’s Transportation Ministry had long ignored warnings about the risks from foreign airlines flying into Israel.

Last week, a Delta flight that landed at Ben Gurion Airport was cleared after an anonymous report alleged that a “suspicious” device was on board.

Also last week, Croatia and Germany both scrambled fighter jets after a commercial flight from the Greek holiday island of Corfu to the German city of Nuremberg accidentally sent out a hijacking alert.