Two Jet Airways crew hurt in Brussels explosions

Airline receives threat call about bombs on domestic flights

Two Jet Airways cabin crew members were hurt in the explosion that rocked the Brussels airport on Tuesday morning. There was, however, no damage to four of its Airbus A330 aircraft parked at the airport.

At present, Jet Airways operates daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Newark and Toronto via Brussels. This is, in fact, the airline’s last week of operations at Brussels as it had already announced plans to make Amsterdam its new European gateway from Sunday.

The explosions at Brussels took place at around 8 am (local time) near the check-in counters of departure level and the area was teeming with passengers. Following the explosions, the airport was shut and all flights on Tuesday were cancelled.

Three Jet Airways aircraft had landed in Brussels at 7.20 am, while another flight from Delhi landed at around 8.30 am. All the four aircraft were scheduled to depart from Brussels at 10.15 am.

“The two explosions went off within seconds. Before people could realise there was an explosion, the second bomb went off. There was a mad scramble and passengers rushed towards the exit doors,” said a passenger who was travelling on Jet Airways flight to Mumbai. Sources said the injured crew were headed to Newark on duty.

In a statement, the airline said following the incident, passengers and staff were moved away from the terminal and transit guests who were inside the building were also shifted to aircraft hangars in coaches. In the evening, the passengers were shifted from the airport and arrangements made for meals and accommodation, it added.

In a separate incident, the Jet Airways office received a threat call that bombs were placed on five flights. A Delhi-Chennai flight was diverted to Nagpur and another aircraft, scheduled to fly Delhi-Chennai, was searched for explosives.

The call was received by Jet Airways call centre. The caller also threatened that bombs were on board flights from Delhi to Chandigarh, Gorakhpur and Dehradun. All flights landed safely.