A flight of the Polish airline LOT on the Warsaw - Tel Aviv route, operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft of the Bulgarian airline “Electra Airways“, made an emergency landing at Burgas Airport. This was reported by the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The reason for the redirection was a technical malfunction in the aircraft's transponder, which emitted a false signal of unlawful interference/hijacking. The established procedures for airspace protection – Air Policing have been activated. After confirming that there was no real threat on board, the plane left the country via Turkey.
The plane terminated its flight to Tel Aviv and, at the request of the carrier, was directed back to Bulgaria, where it landed successfully at Burgas Airport at 17:15.
The Crisis Headquarters was immediately summoned and local emergency preparedness was declared. The aircraft was positioned in accordance with safety protocols, away from critical infrastructure. The competent authorities of the Ministry of Interior are taking the necessary actions to verify the case.
No passengers or crew were affected, and the incident did not affect regular traffic at the airport.