CHENNAI: A phone call to Indigo Airline’s call centre in Chennai on Wednesday triggered a security scare grounding 11 flights of Indigo Airlines, including one from Chennai.
The anonymous caller who identified himself as Smith triggered the scare when he said 11 flights of Indigo were facing bomb threats from a woman flyer. Soon after the call was made, the Bomb Threat Assessment Committees (BTAC) in several airports swung into action. The planes, which were identified by the caller, were isolated and subject to vigorous checks.
Airports Authority of India, Chennai, director Deepak Shastri confirmed that one Indigo flight from Chennai Airport bound for Mumbai was grounded following the bomb threat. However, he refused to provide further details stating that it could scare passengers. The bomb threats were for flights emanating from major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Vadodara, Guwahati, Goa and Kochi, Indigo airline sources said. In a statement, IndiGo said its call centre at Chennai received a bomb threat call at 11.13 hours and within minutes the security agencies were alert.
On Monday, five Jet Airways flights from Delhi had received bomb threats, barely hours after the explosions at Brussels airport.