Bomb Threat Evacuates Crown Iris on Greek Island of Syros
An unidentified caller claimed an explosive was attached to the Panama-flagged vessel’s hull, prompting a specialist diver’s inspection before it could resume its voyage.
A bomb threat forced the evacuation of 940 passengers and 597 crew from the Israel-operated Crown Iris on the Greek island of Syros on Tuesday. Searches found no suspicious objects aboard the vessel, which was due to sail to Haifa.
The alert coincided with bomb threats against at least seven passenger flights across Europe, triggering diversions, airport closures and a fighter-jet escort. No explosives were found on the aircraft, and authorities had not established whether the aviation threats were connected.
Hull searched at Syros
An unidentified person claimed that an explosive device had been attached to Crown Iris’s hull. A specialist diver inspected the Panama-flagged vessel, according to Reuters.
Built in 1992, the 40,876-gross-ton ship has a listed maximum capacity of 2,000 passengers. Its previous visits to Greek ports have drawn protests from activists opposing the war in Gaza.
Aircraft diversions and airport closures
The aviation incidents affected flights arriving in Italy, Poland, Spain and Bulgaria. They followed a bomb threat on Monday against a Wizz Air service from London Luton to Bulgaria, which diverted to Budapest under escort from a Hungarian fighter jet.
In Italy, authorities searched two Ryanair aircraft arriving at Rome Fiumicino from Lisbon and Dublin. Police checked passengers, crew and baggage, while the Italian Air Force dispatched two Eurofighters to escort the Dublin service.
A LOT flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin diverted to Modlin Airport, which temporarily closed during the security response. Separately, a warning about a potentially dangerous item aboard an SAS service from Copenhagen led to the closure of one runway at Chopin. That aircraft landed normally, and its passengers disembarked.
Spanish authorities inspected a Ryanair aircraft carrying 121 people from Manchester to Murcia. In Bulgaria, counter-terrorism police searched two aircraft arriving at Sofia from Bergamo and Dublin; neither flight was diverted.
The UK government described the incidents as “malicious hoax threats.” Aviation security expert Paul Mason told BBC Radio 5 Live that threats of this kind “don’t happen that frequently.”
“It sounds like they’ve been made in a credible manner across a broad range of airlines,” Mason said.
Matthew Borie of Osprey Flight Solutions outlined several possible explanations, including copycat threats or multiple claims made by one person or group, according to the Associated Press. He cautioned against drawing conclusions about responsibility.
In Greece, coast guard experts were expected to carry out further inspections before Crown Iris could resume its voyage.
