A fresh wave of hoax bomb threats disrupted air travel across Europe on Friday, grounding, diverting and delaying at least 18 more flights in what officials describe as an apparently coordinated campaign. Every affected aircraft landed safely, and searches found no explosive devices on any of them, The Guardian reported.

The flights hit on Friday were travelling to or from Bulgaria, Czechia, France, Italy, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania, the United Kingdom and Portugal. At least nine flights to and from Prague were threatened, four aircraft over France were affected, and a Wizz Air service from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice. A Ryanair flight from Rome to Lisbon was delayed while police searched the aircraft and found nothing. Hungarian fighter jets escorted three passenger planes through the country's airspace.

Third day of disruption this week

Friday was the third day this week that bomb threats have disrupted European aviation, after at least 35 flights were diverted or searched on Tuesday and Thursday. Eurocontrol said 26,709 flights were scheduled across Europe on Friday, meaning the affected services accounted for a small fraction of traffic — but each threat still forced aircraft searches, passenger handling and schedule recovery.

Threats also reached newsrooms on Friday. The offices of Irish broadcaster RTE, the Irish Independent, Newstalk and Virgin Media were evacuated, and Britain's Sky News said it had received a security threat, according to AP and Reuters reporting. Irish officials described the threats as a likely coordinated campaign. No government has assigned blame, and investigators have not established who sent the threats. Some messages sent on Thursday were signed in the name of a Russian far-right group, but that claim has not been verified.

Sources: The Guardian, via World Right Now; Daily Caller (AP/Reuters reporting).