A flight of the Polish airline LOT on the Warsaw-Tel Aviv route, using an Airbus A320 of the Bulgarian airline Elektra Airways, made an emergency landing at Burgas Airport.
The reason for the diversion is a technical malfunction in the aircraft’s transponder, which transmitted a false signal of unlawful interference/hijacking. The established procedure for airspace protection – Air Policing was triggered. After confirming that there was no real threat on board, the plane left the country via Türkiye.
The machine aborted its flight to Tel Aviv and at the request of the carrier was directed back to Bulgaria, where it successfully landed at Burgas Airport at 17:15.
The Crisis Headquarters was immediately convened and local emergency preparedness was declared. The aircraft is positioned in accordance with safety protocols, away from critical infrastructure. The competent authorities of the Ministry of Interior are taking the necessary actions to investigate the incident.
No passengers or crew members were affected and the incident did not impact regular traffic at the airport.