Indian police boarded the flight after the emergency landing in Delhi
The pilot of a Turkish Airlines plane flying from Bangkok to Istanbul with 134 passengers made an emergency landing at Delhi’s Indira Ghandi Internationla (IGI) Airport last Tuesday after a bomb scare on board.
The pilot alerted the ATC after the cabin crew spotted a “bomb in cargo” warning scrawled, possibly in lipstick, on a washroom mirror. The jet landed at IGI, flyers were evacuated and it was scanned for three ho8urs after which the scare was declared a hoax. Sleuths verified the flyers, who were allowed to board again. The jet was scheduled to depart at 1.30am.
This is the fifth time the Turkish airline has received such a bomb-on-board threat in recent months
Around 1pm, the cabin crew spotted the warning when the aircraft was in the Nagpur ATC range. The captain immediately called Nagpur airport, he was directed to Delhi. The plane touched down at IGI at 1:43pm, an official said.
As soon as the aircraft landed, it was sent to an isolation bay. “All the passengers were evacuated and sent to the terminal building.
The Delhi Police, National Security Guards, Central Industrial Security Force and fire officials were rushed in with the bomb detection team and the dog squad. After a thorough search and rechecking every piece of baggage, the plane was declared “clean”. All the passengers were screened.”
The warning message was found in the economy section’s rear washroom mirror. Security agencies are trying to figure out who spread the scare which caused the panic. “Typically, the crew clean the washroom after 20 minute intervals. The warning was spotted 10 minutes after the toilet was last cleaned.”
Immediately after the Nagpur ATC received the alert, the government formed a bomb threat assessment committee comprising officials from the Bureau for Civil Aviation Security, CISF, ATC, local police and airport operators.
“This threat was deemed to be a specific one by this panel. Since Delhi has the best systems in place to handle such emergencies, the aircraft was diverted there” said aviation secretary R N Choubey.
The Turkish airline faced a similar scare this March. A warning was found written on a washroom mirror on a flight from Istanbul to Sao Paulo. An emergency was declared and the flight landed at Casablanca in Morocco. In April, another Turkish flight to Basel in Switzerland was forced to make an emergency landing at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport after a bomb threat.