Hoax call leads to bomb scare at IGI

The passenger of an Indigo Airlines flight triggered a bomb scare at the IGI Airport after he called in to ‘report’ a bomb inside the aircraft. Following the call to the airline customer care centre in Gurgaon,Delhi Police and CISF personnel conducted frisking of the passengers and checking for 90 minutes before declaring it a ‘hoax’.

The passenger,Vijay Khandelwal,who was to catch Indigo Airlines flight 6E 203 (Delhi to Kolkata) at 3.30 pm on Wednesday,has been detained,along with a few others,for questioning by the police. While Khandelwal claimed he overheard five people talking about the “bomb on the flight” at a restaurant,officers said he made the hoax call to hold up the flight as he was running late.

After the call,an airline official informed the CISF. The flight was then shifted to a remote bay. After a thorough checking by CISF commandos,a Quick Reaction Team and a bomb squad,the call was declared hoax at 6.30 pm and the flight finally took off at 7.30 pm.

Khandelwal was reportedly traced through his cell phone number,which was there on the passenger’s list and that he had used to make the call.