A Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Kochi was diverted to Nagpur in Maharashtra after it received a bomb threat, news agency PTI reported.
The bomb squad reached the spot after a threat was issued to blow up the flight. The flight had arrived in Kochi from Muscat and departed for Delhi. Following the threat call, the aircraft made an emergency landing at Nagpur airport for inspection, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) said.
CIAL received the threat in an email on its official ID at 9:31 am, referring to the IndiGo flight which had 157 passengers and six crew members on board.
Subsequently, a Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) was formed and declared the threat as “specific”, CIAL added.
"After completing the security checks, the aircraft will proceed to Delhi," it said.
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According to a statement from DCP Nagpur, Lohit Matani, the passengers were safely deboarded and an investigation is underway. He further added that nothing suspicious had been found so far, ANI reported.
Series of recent flight bomb threats
The incident follows a series of recent bomb threats affecting international and domestic flights.
Earlier on June 15, a Lufthansa flight to Hyderabad made a mid-air U-turn to Frankfurt due to a bomb threat. An official from Hyderabad airport confirmed on Monday that the threat was received while the aircraft was still outside Indian airspace.
A bomb threat email targeting Lufthansa flight LH 752 was received at the Hyderabad airport at 6:01 pm on June 15. A bomb threat assessment committee was formed and all procedures were followed as per SOP. The airline was advised to divert back to the origin or the nearest suitable airport, news agency ANI reported.
Lufthansa later said the passengers were provided with overnight accommodation and standard protocol was followed.
Separately, it was reported earlier that an Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai faced a technical glitch and passengers were deplaned at a scheduled halt in Kolkata.
On June 13, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Thailand’s Phuket also received a bomb threat. The Air India flight AI 379, which had departed Phuket at 9:30 am, made an emergency landing on the island after the threat was reported mid-flight.
These repeated incidents have raised concerns over aviation security, prompting authorities to reinforce threat response protocols across airports and airline operators in India.
