A day after the terror attack in Brussels, IndiGo airways has received a phone call informing the airline that there is a bomb threat on 11 of its flights.
Airline sources said the caller, who identified himself only as Smith from the US, said at least 11 flights of IndiGo. The aircrafts, which were either ready for take off or had already departed from around 10 airports, were facing bomb threat from a woman flyer.
The threat was for flights emanating from major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Vadodara, Guwahati, Goa and Kochi, sources said.
“As many as 11 IndiGo flights were grounded after the airline’s call centre at Chennai recieved a message about bomb threat. The caller, who identified himself as one Smith from the US, said that a woman passenger allegedly belonging to the ISI of Pakistan was carrying a bomb and could blow up one of the aircraft,” a source said.
In a statement, IndiGo said its call centre at Chennai received a bomb threat call at 1113 hours and within minutes the security agencies were informed.
IndiGo said, “All our passengers are safe”.
Soon after the call was made, the Bomb Threat Assessment Committees (BTAC) at different airports swung into action. The planes, which were mentioned by the caller, were isolated and subject to vigorous checks.
The 11 fligts are Vadodara-Delhi (6E 591), Kochi-Delhi (516), Delhi-Srinagar (853), Delhi-Chennai (443), Ahmedabad-Kolkata (135), Delhi-Mumbai (223), Chennai-Mumbai (612), Delhi-Goa (329), Guwahati-Delhi (571), Delhi-Ahmedabad (161) and Delhi-Vadodara (734).
“We are actively engaged in working very closely with the concerned agencies. We can assure you that our operations are safe...,” IndiGo said.
The IndiGo flight from Srinagar to New Delhi was the first to receive the threat, soon after landing at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). Following that, the aircraft was taken to the isolation bay and passengers were deplaned safely.
IndiGo flight 6E 853 from Srinagar via Jammu landed at IGIA at around 3:00 pm. The airline’s call centre received an anonymous call on Wednesday about the presence of a bomb on the flight, sources said.
On Tuesday, Jet Airways got a similar threat for five of its flights, which turned out to be a hoax. However, by the time the airline received the threat, two of its flights had landed in the very Brussels airport that was under attack.
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