Refrigerator Hacking Followed by 'Plane Bomb' Threats Paralyze European Airports

[Anchor]

Europe is grappling with a wave of terror threats and cyberattacks. A series of bomb threats targeting aircraft has triggered emergency returns and paralyzed airports across the region. Meanwhile, additional refrigerator hacking damage has been confirmed in the UK and Germany.

Correspondent Kwon Yeongin reports from Paris.

[Reporter]

Luggage is unloaded onto the runway from a halted passenger plane.

Explosive detection dogs are deployed to thoroughly search the bags one by one.

On the 3rd local time, a bomb threat was received targeting a passenger flight heading from Manchester, UK, to Murcia, Spain.

The aircraft, carrying about 120 passengers and crew members, was moved to an isolated area immediately after landing, and a bomb disposal unit was even deployed.

Airport operations were suspended for two and a half hours, but no explosives were found.

On yesterday (the 3rd) alone, bomb threats continued against six other European aircraft, including a flight from the UK to Poland, leading to emergency landings and airport closures in various places.

[Georgi Peyev / Bulgarian Minister of Transport and Communications: All procedures were carried out according to established regulations, and the aircraft inspection has been completed. There was a bomb threat, but no explosives were identified.]

In Greece, even a cruise ship underwent an emergency search following a bomb threat, but all of them turned out to be false reports.

The hacking of supermarket refrigeration systems that occurred across nine European countries on the 2nd has been confirmed to have caused additional incidents in the UK and Germany as well.

Local media reported that the refrigeration and freezing facilities of two meat distributors in the UK and four supermarkets in Germany were hacked, causing temperatures to soar.

As hacking targeting food distribution networks is followed by continuous bomb threats against aircraft and ships, suspicions are growing that this may be a coordinated attack aimed at plunging Europe into chaos.

[Sijmen Ruwhof / Dutch Cybersecurity Expert: (Refrigeration facility hacking) is not a technically difficult attack, and because the attack can be carried out in a way with high anonymity, tracking and apprehending the perpetrators is more difficult.]

European nations suspect Russia behind the string of attacks, but have yet to produce clear evidence.

(Video reporting: Kim Si-nae | Video editing: Lee So-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.