Pune-Bound SpiceJet Flight Gets Bomb Threat Call Before Take Off From Delhi Airport

Delhi Airport: "So far nothing suspicious has been found but security drill will be followed as per SOP," said Police.

A SpiceJet aircraft takes off.

Source : File Photo/AFP

A bomb threat call was received on a Pune-bound Spicejet flight from Delhi before the takeoff, said Delhi Police, reported news agency ANI. The flight is currently being searched. Today at 6.30 p.m., the plane was scheduled to depart from Delhi's IGI Airport. After receiving the bomb threat call, airline personnel halted boarding and contacted the bomb squad.

"Officials of the CISF and the Delhi Police are on alert. We were informed by authorities regarding a call they received where the caller said there was a bomb in the Pune-bound SpiceJet plane. The plane is being checked but nothing suspicious has so far been found. However, we are following the security drill in accordance with our standard operating procedure," a senior police officer said.

#UPDATE | Bomb call on Delhi-Pune Spicejet flight at IGI Airport | Delhi Police say, "So far nothing suspicious has been found but security drill will be followed as per SOP."

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2023

According to sources, the plane, SG 8938, was expected to depart at 5:35 p.m. They added that when the call was received, the passengers were at the boarding gate rather than inside the aircraft, reported PTI.

The officer stated that efforts are also being made to locate the caller and determine whether it was a hoax call.

This is the second incident involving a SpiceJet flight in two days, after the airline allegedly stopped passengers from boarding a plane at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday.

On January 10, passengers of Delhi-Bengaluru flight SG 8133 were involved in an unfortunate incident at IGI Airport's Terminal 3. Spicejet was accused of making passengers wait more than an hour at the Delhi airport between the boarding gate and the flight to Bengaluru.

The DGCA, an aviation watchdog, stated that they would request a SpiceJet report on this matter.

On Tuesday at the Delhi airport, a passenger posted a video and shared his experience about co-passengers having to wait a long time at the aerobridge. SpiceJet flight SG 8133 passengers traveling between Delhi and Bengaluru experienced this.

SpiceJet stated late on Wednesday that the flight had been delayed as a result of weather disruptions that caused the arriving crew to exceed their duty time limit.

Earlier, a 244-person chartered flight from Moscow to Goa was diverted to Jamnagar airport, where it made an emergency landing late on Monday in response to a bomb threat. The flight left for its destination Tuesday afternoon after a 12-hour search yielded nothing suspicious.

After an extensive search by various Indian agencies, including the elite counterterrorism force National Security Guards (NSG), the plane took off for Goa.

At 9.38 p.m. on Monday, the Russian Azur Air flight made an emergency landing in Jamnagar after receiving an email from air traffic control (ATC) at a Goa airport warning of a bomb aboard.