An incident involving an El Al Boeing 787 Dreamliner mobilized fighter jets from four air forces, after air traffic control announced a possible bomb onboard, The Aviation Herald reported Friday night.
An El Al Boeing 787-9 on flight LY-2 from New York JFK to Tel Aviv, was over Spain when the crew advised air traffic control they suspected a bomb had been planted on the aircraft.
Fighter aircraft were dispatched to escort the passenger plane into Italy, where Italian fighter aircraft took over and escorted the aircraft into Greece, where Greek fighter aircraft escorted the aircraft through Greek airspace. When the aircraft entered Cyprus airspace, Israeli fighter aircraft took over and escorted the aircraft to a safe landing in Tel Aviv about 4 hours after the initial alert had been made.
Greek Media reported the crew became suspicious while flying over Spain that a bomb had been planted on the aircraft. NATO decided to dispatch the fighter aircraft which intercepted and escorted the Israeli Boeing.
According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was still on the ground in Tel Aviv on Saturday morning, some 14.5 hours after landing.
The airline and Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority have not yet commented on the event.
On June 5, 2016, fighter jets were launched at an El Al plane following a false bomb alert. The Swiss Air Force reported that F18 fighter jets accompanied an El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv on the border between France and Switzerland due to a bomb threat. Austrian fighter jets also joined the Israeli plane. After checking in, the plane continued flying and landed safely at Ben Gurion International Airport.