Bomb hoax call delays Air India flight

Bomb hoax call delays Air India flight
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, MARCH 1: Starting with a hijack hoax call at its take off, to a bomb threat at its landing the Air India flight A1 478 on Mumbai-Singapore-Jakarta truly seemed jinxed. After a hijack scare at the Mumbai airport which delayed the departure of the plane by more than an hour, the flight on its landing at Singapore airport was diverted to a military base inside the airport `after it received a bomb threat.'

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Following an annonymous call made to the airline office at the Sahar airport, which warned of a hijack attempt, the security agencies went on a overdrive and thoroughly checked the aircraft, passengers and their baggages. "We alerted all our agencies after a call was received that the plane would be hijacked. The call turned out to be a hoax and the plane was given the go- ahead for take-off," said the regional Deputy Commissioner of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security Sushovan Banerjee.

However Banerjee was unaware of the bomb threat at the Singapore airport. The airline spokesman in Mumbai also denied that there was any bomb threat to the plane at the Singapore airport. "After a delay of one hour and twenty minutes, the flight was cleared for departure and a message was sent to all relevant stations.

``It appears the message sent to the Singapore airport was probably misread at some level, resulting in a decision by the Singapore airport to conduct a thorough security check of the aircraft on arrival," said the airline spokesman in Mumbai.

The spokesman added that no request had been made at any stage by the Air-India security staff to the authorities at Singapore to check the aircraft. "It is thus evident that it was a clear case of miscommunication and that the Air-India flight had faced no security threat whatsoever when it landed at Singapore. The prolonged security check carried out at Singapore leading to a further delay of four hours was thus unwarranted." said the spokesperson.