Late, Jaipur man says bomb on flight, arrested for hoax

MUMBAI : A Jaipur-mumbai Indigo flight was given priority landing at the Mumbai airport early on Tuesday, after the airline’s call centre in Gurugram received a bomb threat call.

Within hours, the caller was identified as Jaipur resident Mohit Kumar Tank, who made the call as he was late for the flight.

Tank, a choreographer, has been arrested.

Flight 6E 218 was nearing Mumbai when the call came in. The aircraft landed at 6.16am, and was directed to an isolation bay after the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) declared the threat to be “specific”.

The Bomb Detection and Dog Squad checked the flight after which BTAC established it as a hoax. “All procedures were followed to ensure the aircraft was at no risk,” said a Mumbai airport official. According to the standard operating procedure, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) frisked passengers and their baggage had to undergo additional screening.

The airline, in a statement, confirmed receiving the call around 5.30am.

“We immediately reported the matter to the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC)

and followed all laid down security protocols . The authorities concerned carried out the investigation and declared the call as ‘specific bomb threat’. Following clearance by the authorities, operations resumed as normal.”

CISF deputy inspector general KN Tripathy said, “While the security checks were in process, we were informed that the caller was identified and caught by the local police. However, all the checks were completed.”

Airport officials said that after the necessary checks, the aircraft was declared “safe” at 9.45am.

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