Flight OS82, Oct. 19 -- Fifty-one passengers, among them a delegation of young people due to speak at the United Nations, were taken off an Austrian Airlines jet in Sofia on Sunday night after a bomb threat sent a Bulgarian fighter up to escort it down.

42 p.m. Central European Summer Time (2:42 p.m. ET), the Lufthansa Group said in a statement quoted by Ynet. By TEH's arithmetic that is 57 people aboard. The diversion came as Bulgaria presses NATO for jets to cover the Black Sea.

What triggered it is the open question. Ynet reported that the threat came from an Austrian citizen who was not aboard, and that early indications pointed to a false alarm. Even so, the machinery ran in full: a fighter scramble, an evacuation, a working headqu...