BHUBANESWAR: An Akasa Air flight en route to Bhubaneswar from Bengaluru and an IndiGo aircraft flying to Jharsuguda received hoax bomb threats on Thursday, prompting the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) and VSS Airport to trigger emergency protocols.
According to BPIA officials, Akasa Air flight (QP1572) which departed from Bengaluru was scheduled to land at Bhubaneswar by 3:10 pm.
As per the protocol, the airport's bomb threat committee was activated at 2:30 pm and after due inspections, the threat was declared as non-specific before the said flight reached here.
After the flight landed, a thorough check was conducted and it resumed the return journey to Bengaluru at 4:30 pm.
An IndiGo flight en route from Bengaluru to VSS Airport in Jharsuguda also received a similar threat.
The aircraft was thoroughly checked after it reached Jharsuguda at 12:30 pm and departed for Bengaluru at about 4 pm.
On Thursday, at least 14 Akasa Air flights to different destinations including Bhubaneswar received hoax bomb threat messages. Various other airlines like IndiGo and Air India also received simultaneous hoax bomb threats earlier in the day.
Security has been tightened at BPIA amid the wave of bomb threats targeting key Indian airlines over the last week.
"We are thoroughly frisking the passengers and checking their baggage to avoid any untoward incident," said CISF Commandant Alok Joshi.
In another incident, a passenger travelling on a Vistara Airlines flight from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi was deboarded at BPIA for alleged unruly behaviour. The passenger was reportedly travelling with one of his female friends and clicking photographs when the flight was supposed to take off at 1:15 pm.
"He started misbehaving with the crew members after being asked not to click photographs during the flight's take-off. He was deboarded for his unruly behaviour. The flight was resultantly delayed and took off at 2 pm," said Joshi.