Romanian Inspectors Find No Explosives on KLM Flight to Tel Aviv

Romania’s intelligence service said specialists found no explosive-related items aboard a KLM aircraft bound for Tel Aviv after its pilots requested an inspection during a scheduled stopover in Bucharest on November 5. The service, known as SRI, said the bomb threat against the flight was not confirmed following the checks at Henri Coandă International Airport, also called Otopeni. SRI initially assessed the threat as false. After being informed of it, the pilots consulted their airline and requested a specialist explosives inspection, taking the flight’s destination into account. The procedures described for the inspection covered passengers, checked baggage and the aircraft. Announcing the result, SRI said: “The alert is not confirmed.” The service reported another, nonspecific threat involving the airport that evening. It said that alert was also false and required no measures. The two evening alerts followed earlier bomb-threat checks at Otopeni on the same day. Earlier on November 5, the crew of a Wizz Air aircraft arriving from Milan notified the control tower of a bomb threat. That aircraft landed at 11:09 local time. A crisis response cell was established, and its 182 passengers and seven crew members were disembarked and taken into the terminal while SRI bomb-disposal specialists inspected the aircraft. That earlier alert was also not confirmed.