A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Toronto received a mid-air bomb threat on Thursday before it landed safely in the national capital.
The Delhi Police received a tip-off about the threat at around 11.30 am when the flight was just over four hours away from Delhi, sources told PTI citing sources.
However, the flight landed safely in Delhi around 3.40pm and was parked for mandatory security checks by security as per protocol.
Flight AI188, operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft, was assessed by the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) set up at the Delhi airport. however, sources said the threat was found to be “non-specific”.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the airline’s spokesperson said that the crew on board carried out all the prescribed safety drills, with the safety of passengers as the highest priority.
All passengers and crew disembarked safely, the spokeswoman added.
The development comes amid a car blast in Delhi near the Red Fort area that left at least 13 people dead and several others injured. The government is treating the explosion as a “terrorist incident”.
According to a PTI report on Wednesday, IndiGo received a message that there was a bomb threat to five airports, including Delhi and Mumbai. The report claimed that five airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram – were under bomb threat.
While an Air India Express flight from Mumbai to Varanasi also received a bomb threat.
The flight landed safely at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport and the threat turned out to be a hoax.
According to the Gomti Zone Police, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Kolkata informed the Varanasi ATC at around 15:58 about a possible bomb threat to Flight IX-1023 arriving from Mumbai.
Following the alert, security agencies at the Varanasi airport were put on high alert before the flight landed safely at 4:19 pm with 182 passengers on board, officials said.
CISF teams and airport security teams conducted an intensive search operation and search of passengers as part of standard protocol after the aircraft landed, they said.
“During the inspection, no suspicious object or activity was found,” said the senior police officer.
