Air India Express flight from Dubai carrying 189 passengers receives bomb threat, lands in Jaipur

An Air India Express flight IX-196 flying from Dubai to Jaipur, with 189 passengers onboard received a bomb threat via an email at 12.45am on Saturday, said Jaipur Airport Police SHO Sandeep Basera.

The plane landed at the Jaipur International Airport at 1:20am and after a thorough check by the security forces, nothing suspicious was found, news agency ANI quoted the police officer as saying.

The pattern of domestic airlines receiving bomb threats continued for a sixth day on Saturday, as authorities suspended or blocked about 10 social media handles for posting threats, according to reports.

The Air India Express incident comes even as a London-bound Vistara flight from Delhi was diverted to Frankfurt on Friday following a bomb threat.

In a statement early Saturday morning, an airline spokesperson said the flight landed safely at the Frankfurt airport and mandatory checks are being conducted. The flight will continue to its destination once cleared by the security agencies.

“Vistara flight UK17 operating from Delhi to London on October 18, 2024 received a security threat on social media. In line with the protocol, all relevant authorities were immediately informed and as a precautionary measure, the pilots decided to divert the flight to Frankfurt,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Akasa Air said its flight QP 1366 scheduled to fly from Bengaluru to Mumbai on Friday received a security alert shortly before departure.

“Hence as per safety and security procedures, all passengers had to be deplaned as the local authorities followed necessary procedures. We request your understanding as our team on ground did everything possible to reduce inconvenience,” the airline said in a post on X.

In the past few days, nearly 40 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received bomb threats which later turned out to be hoaxes.

The civil aviation ministry plans to put in place strict norms to prevent incidents of hoax bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators in the no-fly list.

Among the flights that received threats on Thursday four were of Air India Express, two of Vistara and one IndiGo. Air India said “a number of” their flights also received hoax bomb threat, but they did not specify the number.

Civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu said the ministry is looking at amending regulations to ensure strict action. Asked whether there is a conspiracy behind the bomb threats, he said, “Whatever we know now are that of individuals and minors…and pranksters.”