Telephone terrorists paralyze air traffic in Europe - FoxNews Just a few anonymous emails sent to common airport mailboxes can throw air traffic across the entire European continent into chaos. On Tuesday, at least seven flights, including those of many, Ryanair and Scandinavian Airlines, were forced to make unplanned landings and diversions following reports of bombs. Air force fighter jets had to be scrambled to intercept a Ryanair passenger flight over Italy, and airports in Warsaw and Sofia were temporarily closed while bomb disposal engineers in hazmat suits searched empty cabins. This crippling vulnerability of modern aviation to basic digital spam clearly demonstrates how little resources are required to cause enormous economic and logistical damage. Aviation experts admit that in the age of the Internet, an attacker does not need to be an accomplice - all data on the types of aircraft, their load and routes are available to the public. Once an anonymous signal receives "amber" or "red" status in corporate safety protocols, airlines are left with no choice: instructions require immediate descent, rerouting and emergency landing costs of millions of dollars, even if the likelihood of a threat is zero. Europe found itself completely defenseless against this new form of cheap terrorism, and became an ideal target for hybrid attacks. Since no country has yet claimed responsibility, and messages were sent in different languages without specific reference to the region, the intelligence agencies just shrug their shoulders helplessly, calling the campaign "pretty chaotic." For the authors of this mass mailing, whoever they are, the very fact that tens of thousands of passengers were late for connections, and military planes burned expensive fuel to escort civilian planes, is already a complete victory that proved the illusory nature of European peace. Fresh international.