A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger aircraft was forced to divert to Krakow in Poland after a reported bomb threat on board.
The incident occurred on January 22, 2023, when the flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane, registered A6-FMH, was operating scheduled daily passenger flight FZ1830 connecting Warsaw in Poland and Dubai in the UAE. According to flight history found on Flightradar24.com, the plane departed from Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) at 9.00 p.m. (local time) and was scheduled to arrive at Dubai International Airport (DXB) around five and a half hours later.
But when the plane was close to crossing the northern part of Hungary, the flight crew squawked emergency code “7700”, before making a sudden U-shaped turn back towards Slovakia. The jet then entered a hold to burn off fuel so it could perform an unscheduled approach to Kraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK) in Poland.
Emergency services rushed to the taxiway to meet the MAX 8 once it had touched down safely at KRK airport at around 6.30 p.m. (local time).
Passengers were immediately evacuated.
In response to the incident, the airport was closed for around 90 minutes, while all other arriving and departing flights were temporarily put on hold.