Travelers wait outside Toulouse-Blagnac airport evacuated after a bomb threat, October 18, 2023 (AFP/Charly TRIBALLEAU)
Eighteen airports in the regions were targeted on Friday by new false bomb threats, ten of which were evacuated, announced the Minister for Transport, promising that the “big idiots” at the origin of these messages would be punished.
“Since Wednesday, we have seen an increase in alerts, false bomb threats in our airports. And I want to say it very clearly, the smart guys or the little jokers who play this kind of game are in fact big idiots, even serious delinquents,” said Clément Beaune during a press conference.
A few hours before the start of the All Saints’ Day holidays, air transport was disrupted for the third consecutive day on Friday. As of Wednesday, 17 airports had received threats, 15 of which were evacuated; Thursday, 25 were the subject of an alert and evacuation measures were taken in 19 of them, revealed Mr. Beaune from the headquarters of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) in Paris.
The alerts on Friday, following the receipt of threatening emails, are “generally over as we speak”, added the minister shortly after 3:15 p.m., nevertheless deploring an “unacceptable situation”. Each airport is invited to file a complaint for each case of alert received, and the courts are seized, he recalled.
“Let all those who think of making a bad joke, of causing fear, know that this is an offense which is very seriously and very heavily punished, that they will be identified, and each of them will be punished. That’s two to three years of imprisonment which are incurred and several tens of thousands of euros in fines”, insisted Mr. Beaune: “we will not hesitate, obviously, to apply them”.
He did not give the names of the platforms concerned on Friday, but a previous report from an airport source reporting 14 affected installations mentioned Bordeaux, Béziers, Lille, Beauvais, Tarbes, Nantes, Brest, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Lyon-Bron, Pau , Nice, Biarritz and Rennes.
Many airports, including Bordeaux, Nantes, Lille, Toulouse, Carcassonne and Brest, were subsequently confirmed to have been threatened, as well as Perpignan and Basel-Mulhouse.
– Less serious disruptions –
Since the start of this wave, the operation of the major airports serving Paris, namely Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly, has not been affected but Mr. Beaune revealed on Friday that these platforms had received threats on Wednesday, without it is deemed necessary to evacuate them.
A previous report from an airport source reporting 14 installations affected by bomb threats mentioned Bordeaux, Béziers, Lille, Beauvais, Tarbes, Nantes, Brest, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Lyon-Bron, Pau, Nice, Biarritz and Rennes (AFP /Archives/Loic VENANCE)
In the presence of the commander of the Air Transport Gendarmerie (GTA), General Philippe Mirabaud and the Director General of Civil Aviation Damien Cazé, the minister defended a “case by case” reaction, “adapted and proportionate to each situation “, taken by the prefects based on “the reality of the threat and the security conditions”.
According to the flight operations dashboard on the DGAC website, the disruptions were less serious on Friday than the day before, when some airports suffered flight delays of up to three hours.
The platform suffering the most delays on Friday was Nice-Côte-d’Azur, but this is the consequence of bad weather affecting the Alpes-Maritimes, according to the traffic monitoring body Eurocontrol.
The latter, in a note to airlines, asked them to be ready to adapt their flight plans at short notice due to “security problems” in French airport terminals.
Thursday evening, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin mentioned 18 arrests in 48 hours in connection with these alerts, which also affect educational establishments or tourist places.
The Palace of Versailles was evacuated at midday on Friday for the fifth time this week following yet another alert, the establishment announced on its X account (formerly Twitter), before reopening shortly before 4 p.m.
These alerts have been increasing for several days in France, particularly since the jihadist attack which cost the life of teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras.
© 2023 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends using the buttons below.
