Raipur:

An IndiGo flight from Nagpur to Kolkata on Thursday made an emergency landing here after receiving a bomb threat which turned out to be a hoax, officials said.

A passenger was detained following the incident.

The flight with 187 passengers and six crew members onboard landed at the Swami Vivekananda Airport here sometime after 9 am following the threat, Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh said.

As per the preliminary information, a passenger told aircraft crew members about the presence of a bomb when the flight was mid-air.

The Air Traffic Control was informed and the flight was diverted to Raipur. Upon landing, it was immediately taken to the isolation bay for mandatory security checks, the police official said.

A police team and a bomb squad also reached the airport. All the passengers were deboarded and the aircraft and the passengers’ luggage were thoroughly checked, Singh said.

“After complete inspection, the bomb threat was found to be a hoax. The passenger who had informed about the bomb was detained and is being questioned,” the police official added.

The flight departed for Kolkata around 12 noon, airport officials said.

On October 24, a similar threat was issued to an Alliance Air flight from Kolkata to Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) following which the aircraft was checked at the Bilaspur airport but nothing suspicious was found. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

A 42-year-old man has been arrested from Bengaluru for allegedly giving a bomb threat to Akasa Air as he wanted to delay a flight for his wife who had reached the airport late, Mumbai police said on Wednesday.

Vilas Bakade, the accused, is an employee of a private firm in Bengaluru, said an official of the airport police station.

His wife was late reaching the boarding gate for her flight back to Bengaluru from Mumbai on February 24 evening, the official said.

Bakade called Akasa Air’s customer care service and requested them to make a concession for her. When he was informed that it was not possible, he allegedly claimed that there was a bomb on the flight.

The plane was searched but nothing suspicious was found. Subsequently, an FIR was registered and Bakade was tracked down from the mobile number, he said.

A court has remanded the accused in judicial custody and further probe was on, the official added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)