October 16, (THEWILL) – An Akasa Air passenger aircraft flying 184 passengers from New Delhi to the Indian southern city of Bengaluru, was diverted on Wednesday after it “received a security alert” relating to a bomb threat.
The 184 people on board, including three infants, made a precautionary safety return to New Delhi.
Another flight, the domestic carrier IndiGo, flying from Mumbai to New Delhi, was diverted to Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
The Indian Express newspaper reported 12 domestic and international flights have received bomb threats since Monday, including some messages posted on social media. All have been false alarms.
Singapore scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to escort an Air India Express plane after an email warning about a possible bomb on board. Two F-15 jets were deployed to escort the aircraft “away from populated areas” before it landed safely at Changi Airport late on Tuesday.
Air India also said on Tuesday that one of its planes from New Delhi to Chicago had to make an emergency landing in Canada because of “a security threat posted online”. The flight also landed safely at Canada’s far northern city of Iqaluit. Canada’s armed forces later airlifted the passengers to Chicago, Canada’s Minister of Defence Bill Blair said on X.
Similar hoaxes were received this week by India’s low-cost operator, IndiGo regarding two flights that were to take off, to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and to Muscat in Oman, according to Indian media.
Zulfiquar Hasan, director-general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), told the Times of India newspaper that “Indian skies are absolutely safe” and said police were working to identify the culprits.
“We are confident of tracing all those behind these threat messages and very strict action under the law will be taken”, Hasan said.
