NEW DELHI: Security agencies across the country went into tizzy on Wednesday after receiving a call from the US claiming that a woman passenger, allegedly belonging to Pakistan’s ISI, was carrying a bomb and could blow up one of Indigo airlines’ 11 aircrafts.
Six flights that were to take off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi to various destinations were grounded for checking as were aircraft in other locations. As the caller did not specify any flight number, all Indigo flights landing in Delhi were also being checked. A senior police officer said that the Indigo Call Centre at Chennai had received the bomb threat call at 11.13 am. Thereafter all the security agencies were informed about the threat.
Later, the airlines issued a statement, “There are certain laid down procedures to be followed by the airlines, airports and other government authorities and all such procedures were followed and are being followed. All our passengers are safe.”
Flight 6E 853 from Jammu to Delhi, on arrival at the national capital, after disembarkation of passengers was also moved to an isolation bay for checking as the call had been receiving while in the flight was in the air.
The person who made the phone call, only identified himself as ‘Smith from the US’ and had claimed that at least 11 flights of Indigo, which were either ready for takeoff or had already departed from around 10 airports, were facing bomb threats from a woman flyer.
The threat was for flights taking off from major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Vadodara, Guwahati, Goa and Kochi.
Crew Kin to Be Flown to Brussels
Meanwhile, family members of two Jet Airways crew members, who were injured in the Brussels airport blasts, are being flown to the Belgian capital, the airline said on Wednesday, while maintaining that both the employees were “safe”. The airline, which has cancelled its flight services to Brussels till Thursday. The Airlines said it would ferry its stranded passengers from Amsterdam, which is all set to become the airline’s new European gateway for flights from Sunday. The airline has deployed 15 coaches to transfer its stranded passengers.