Things are returning to normal at Ukraine’s airports after bomb threats were made against ten of them on Nov. 10.
All of the threats, which were made in a short period of time around noon, turned out to be hoaxes, according to National Police spokesperson Yaroslav Trakalo.
But the hoaxes disrupted flights and led to passenger evacuations involving hundreds of people at airports in Rivne, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kherson and the port city of Odesa, Trakalo said.
An anonymous call claiming that an explosive device had been planted in a car parked at Odesa International Airport was received at noon, while in Zaporizhzhya a call was reported at 11:50, causing the evacuation of about 700 passengers and terminal employees. Three flights were canceled.
All of the calls were made at approximately the same time, with the caller each time claiming that explosive devices had been planted in cars in close proximity to the airports.
Bomb disposal squads soon arrived shortly to check the terminals. At 2:30 p.m. police reported they hadn’t found any explosives at any of the airports.
Trakalo said the police had opened an investigation into the hoax. If caught, the hoaxer or hoaxers could face a sentence of up to six years in prison.
