Air India Express Flight To Varanasi From Mumbai Gets Hoax Bomb Threat
Passengers were evacuated safely and a bomb disposal squad was called in.
The Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport was on high alert on Wednesday after an Air India Express flight was issued a hoax bomb threat while it was airborne.
The plane was leaving from Mumbai to Varanasi and made a safe emergency landing, after which, it was moved to an isolation bay for a comprehensive security inspection, according to NDTV.
Passengers were evacuated safely and a bomb disposal squad was called in.
"One of our flights to Varanasi received a security threat. In line with protocol, the Government-appointed Bomb Threat Assessment Committee was immediately alerted, and all necessary security procedures promptly initiated," an Air India Express Spokesperson said.
"The flight landed safely and all guests have disembarked. The aircraft will be released for operations once all mandated security checks are completed," they added.
The Bomb Threat Assessment Committee that promptly investigated the matter confirmed that the threat was a hoax.
The threat was issued via email. The email was received between 3:40 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.
Several other major airports reported having received a bomb threat email sent via IndiGo Airlines. The airports involved were from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.
This comes after a Hyderabad-bound IndiGo flight from Jeddah received a bomb threat, according to reports on Nov. 1. The flight was diverted to Mumbai after the threat was issued.
The threat was received by the Rajiv Gandhi International via an email, as per reports. The email claimed that there was a 'human bomb', onboard the IndiGo flight and directed them to prevent its landing in Hyderabad.
No issues were found during the inspection and the flight landed safely in Mumbai.
