An Air India flight (AI 657 (BOM-TRV) from Mumbai with 135 passengers and crew onboard made an emergency landing at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport here on Thursday morning after a bomb threat to the aircraft. The flight that had left Mumbai in the morning received the bomb alert while en route to its destination.
A handwritten note on a tissue paper threatening a bomb onboard the flight was found in the flight’s lavatory. The pilot then passed on the information to the Air Traffic Control unit in Thiruvananthapuram and requested an emergency landing. Following this, a full emergency was declared at the airport at 7.36 a.m., and the aircraft landed safely at the airport around 8 a.m. with fire tenders and ambulances on standby.
The flight was then taxied to the isolation bay, where all the passengers were disembarked. The emergency was withdrawn by 12.10 p.m., and all but one of the passengers were released around 12.45 p.m. after the mandatory inspections and baggage screening. A passenger suspected of having written the note has been detained by the Valiyathura police. His identity was not disclosed till evening.
The police said the detained passenger seemed mentally disturbed. No arrest has been made with the passenger denying any involvement in the incident. He would be let off once his parents were summoned. For the time being, a first information report had been registered, and an investigation was under way, the police said.
For the airport authorities, the emergency landing tested their preparedness for such situations. The emergency was declared within seconds of receiving the alert from the flight. Crash fire tenders were kept ready in the isolation bay under the aegis of Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting.
Facilities, including ladders, were put in place to evacuate passengers quickly. The bomb detection and disposal squad of the CISF made arrangements to defuse the bomb soon after the landing. As soon as the aircraft landed, the passengers were shifted to the isolation bay, where their physical and baggage screening was done by the members of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS).
Later, the Valiyathura police took over the investigation. A thorough check inside the plane confirmed that the threat was false. No other services were delayed or disrupted during the five-hour process. The flight was to depart for Mumbai on Thursday morning. The airline made arrangements for those whose journeys had been cancelled due to the hoax bomb scare.The aircraft with 123 passengers on board was scheduled to return to Mumbai by Thursday 9 p.m., said airport sources.
