BENGALURU: “It’s a machine!” he said. “Machine gun?” she asked. This misunderstanding between a Dutch national who was carrying a box along with a guitar and the cabin crew, left more than 150 people, headed to Singapore, stranded at the Kempegowda International Airport for 14 hours on Tuesday.
The flight, operated by budget carrier Scoot, was scheduled to depart from KIA to Singapore at 1.20am on Tuesday, but instead took off with a furious batch of passengers, only at 5.23 pm, half a day later. According to a senior police officer, the flight — TR573 — was initially delayed by 28 minutes and at 1.48am, when it was about to take off, one of the crew members asked the Dutch national what was in the box as part of a regular conversation. This was when the entire drama unfolded.
“The flight was to depart to Singapore when a crew member raised the alarm claiming she had spotted a machine gun inside the cabin luggage,” the police officer said. While the Dutch national told the crew that he was carrying a machine used to play the guitar, the crew misheard it as a machine gun and triggered emergency procedures. The Dutch national was then offloaded from the flight by Scoot authorities and taken to the airport police.
Meanwhile, the aircraft was pulled off the runway, all 150 people were made to de-board and undergo security screening and immigration clearance again. For the Dutch national, however, the threat of being arrested was quickly solved when Venkataraman, a staffer of the airline, who accompanied him to the police, first filed a complaint and then withdrew it after realising the miscommunication.
In a statement, a Bangalore International Airport Limited spokesperson said, “A hoax security threat was made at 01.48 hrs on April 23 relating to Scoot Airlines Flight TR573. Standard security protocols and procedures were followed and no suspicious items were found. A passenger was de-boarded from the flight by the CISF.
The remaining passengers and baggage were also de-boarded and re-screened for security and immigration clearance. A replacement aircraft and crew is being flown into Bengaluru. Meanwhile, food and refreshments have been organised. During this time, there was no impact on operations at the airport. We treat all security threats very seriously and work in coordination with security agencies to ensure safety of our passengers.”