It was reportedly a bomb threat, quite similar to the alleged bomb threat that reportedly caused the landing of the RyanAir flight in Minsk approximately a week earlier.
On the morning of May 31st, German federal police said that their deployment was finished, but declined to give details of what led to it, news agency dpa reported.
RyanAir confirmed the grounding of the flight.
“The crew on a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Krakow FR1901 yesterday were notified by German ATC of a potential security threat on board. The captain followed procedures and diverted to the nearest airport, Berlin.
The aircraft landed safely and passengers were offloaded to facilitate extensive security checks of passengers and all baggage.
Once cleared by German authorities, passengers travelled onwards to Krakow on a spare Ryanair aircraft after a delay on the ground of approx. 8 hrs.
Return passengers from Krakow to Dublin travelled on a spare aircraft, with a delay of less than 15 mins.”
A spokesman for the Berlin airport also gave a statement:
“The Ryanair plane that made an emergency landing reported an air emergency and was therefore immediately given a landing permit at BER,” airport spokesman Jan-Peter Haack told Bild.
“It is now in a parking position. The federal police and fire brigade are there.”
It is reported that there were around 160 passengers on board. Ryanair apologized to affected passengers for the delay, saying it was “outside the airline’s control.”
In July last year, another Ryanair plane from Dublin to Krakow was forced to make an emergency landing in London after a false bomb threat.
Passengers had to temporarily disembark the flight from Krakow to Dublin after a note was found in one of the plane’s toilets claiming there were explosives on board the aircraft.
Nobody was arrested on both flights, of course.
In the emergency landing in Belarus, law enforcement detained activist Roman Protasevich, wanted for attempting to spread dissent and organizing protests and coordinating riots through the Nexta Live Telegram channel, operated out of Poland.
The aircraft, flying over Belarus from Athens to Vilnius, had almost reached Lithuania when it changed direction and was escorted to Belarusian capital Minsk amid reports that it had explosives on board, according to an online flight tracker and BelTA.
Source: South Front
