A passenger was apprehended and handed over to airport police in connection with a hoax hijack threat to a Mumbai-bound Air India flight from Kolkata, officials said on Thursday, reported PTI.
The action follows Wednesday’s incident involving flight AI 2772, which was delayed for more than seven hours after a handwritten threat note was found inside the aircraft’s lavatory shortly before take-off.
In a statement, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the passenger was handed over to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport Police Station.
The note, discovered by a cabin crew member at around 10.37 am, warned that the aircraft would be hijacked at 11.10 am, Kolkata airport director Vikram Singh said. The flight was scheduled to depart at around 10.30 am.
All 105 passengers were deboarded and the aircraft was moved to an isolation bay, where security agencies carried out the prescribed checks. The threat was subsequently declared a hoax, and the flight departed for Mumbai at 5.38 pm.
The incident comes days after a Bengaluru-Lucknow IndiGo flight returned to Bengaluru following the discovery of a handwritten hijack threat in its lavatory. The passengers were deboarded and the aircraft underwent security checks before resuming its journey.
(With inputs from PTI)