On April 21, Poland's Warsaw Chopin Airport was temporarily closed after a bomb threat to an Emirates flight from Dubai. Emirates EK177 was on approach to Warsaw Chopin Airport when it received a message from air traffic control that it had "hazardous materials" onboard. The Boeing 777-31H(ER), registration A6-ENX, landed safely at 1940 local time (1740 UTC) and taxied to a remote part of the airport.As the following interchanges between the aircraft and ATC reveal, the Emirates flight was the last to land before the airport was closed for around two hours.

Why did it take six minutes to say what the threat was?

What seems incredible in this exchange between ATC and the pilot, captured by VASAviation, is it takes around six minutes for the controller to tell the pilot it is a bomb threat.

In that six minutes, ATC slowly moves from "hazardous materials to saying,

"Okay, we have information that the duty officer of the aerodrome has the information that you have a bomb onboard."

Emirates 777
The Emirates Boeing 777 landed safely after an eventful few minutes on approach to landing. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Before that, the Emirates pilot seems unaware of the situation's gravity. Around two minutes into the exchange, the Emirates pilot agrees to allow a Finnair Embraer to land ahead of him, knowing the airport will be closed after he lands.

Around six minutes into the conversation, the pilot's tone changes when ATC asks if he has his own procedures and if he will evacuate the aircraft on the taxiway?

The priority changes once the threat is known

With the pilot still thinking this is about hazardous materials, he pushes back for more information. When the bomb threat is finally relayed he says:

"Priority is to get on the ground now, we'll deal with it once we get on the ground."

When the Emirates plane is cleared to land ATC asks how many souls are onboard and how much fuel do you have? The answer is 235 souls and 8 tons of fuel.

Emirates EK177 landed safely and taxied to a remote part of the airport where emergency services attended.

The threat to Emirates EK177 is not an isolated incident involving Warsaw Chopin. On March 20, the airport was closed after receiving a bomb threat to a Wizz Air flight from Kutaisi, Georgia, to Warsaw. Incoming flights were diverted to Katowice Airport, and the alarm turned out to be false.

An Aviation24.be report says that on April 20, Wizz Air flight W6 1515 from Warsaw Chopin to Norway's Oslo Sandefjord diverted to Gdansk Airport, where it made an emergency landing. The pilots of the Airbus A321, registered HA-LXP, were advised of a bomb threat onboard however all passengers and crew were safely evacuated. Gdansk airport was temporarily closed after the emergency landing.

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In a fourth incident, AirLive reports that Czech airport authorities received an anonymous threat against a LOT Polish flight to Prague. The aircraft, an Embraer E170, was operating flight LO527 on April 20 from Warsaw Chopin to Vaclav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), where it was met by emergency services.

On its return flight to Warsaw, it was diverted to Katowice and stayed there overnight before its onward flight to Warsaw the next day.

These threats to aircraft arriving at or departing Warsaw appears to be a targeted attack.

If more information unfolds on this story, Simple Flying will bring it to you.

Sources: AirLive, Aviation24.be, VASAviation