Ryanair plane diverted to Berlin over potential threat

In yet another flight diversion incident involving Ryanair, the Irish airline on Monday announced that a Poland-bound plane made an unscheduled landing in Berlin due to information received about a possible security threat on board.
The flight from the Irish capital Dublin to Krakow in Poland was diverted to the German capital at around 8 p.m. on Sunday because that was the closest airport, dpa news agency quoted the airline as saying.

The plane was met by a group of police vehicles with lights flashing as it parked in a spot away from the main terminal.

The 160 passengers and their luggage were taken off the plane and examined with the help of sniffer dogs, in an operation that lasted until 4 a.m. on Monday.

The passengers then continued on with their journey using a replacement aircraft.

German federal police said on Monday morning they had determined there was no danger to the aircraft but have yet to release details on the purported threat, saying only that it was a telephone call that had raised alarm.

German tabloids Bild and BZ said that there had been a bomb threat, but neither the police nor Ryanair confirmed those reports.


Sunday's incident in Berlin comes exactly after a week after Belarusian authorities dispatched a fighter jet to force another Ryanair flight to divert to Minsk, where a dissident journalist who was on board was then arrested along with his girlfriend.

Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old dissident journalist, and his partner were taken into custody after the landing on May 23, prompting a raft of measures by the EU, including restricted access to the bloc's airspace for Belarusian carriers. - IANS