Air Serbia received another fake bomb threat on one of their flights to Moscow this afternoon. This is the third bomb hoax that the airline has received in five days. The threats are in response to Air Serbia continuing its service to Russia.
Third bomb threat in five days
Data from Flightradar24.com shows flight JU652 departed from Belgrade at 14:03 and was scheduled to arrive in Moscow at 18:45. Whilst flying over the Hungarian-Slovakian border, the plane was forced to turn and fly back to Belgrade after an anonymous email reported a bomb aboard the flight. The author of the email expressed their disapproval of Serbia’s diplomatic relations with Russia.
This is the third bomb threat hoax that has been called in in the last week, the first being last Friday and the second yesterday. All were carried out by email and targeted Air Serbia’s service between Belgrade and Moscow. All the threats were sent out mid-flight so that the aircraft would have to turn around and return to Belgrade. Upon arrival in Belgrade, the aircraft have all been searched by police, and the bomb threats have been confirmed false.
Air Serbia refused to comment on the situation when asked by the local news network, N1.
Serbia criticised for Moscow flights
Serbia remains the only European country yet to close its airspace to Russia, and their national airline is the only major European carrier still operating flights to Moscow. Earlier in the conflict, Air Serbia was heavily criticised for increasing capacity on their Belgrade-Moscow service, whilst other airlines were withdrawing their routes to Russia.
Late last week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that the airline would be reducing its service to Moscow after what he called a “witch hunt” against his country. Air Serbia will now only operate one flight a day to Moscow,
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