A Kathmandu-bound Jet Airways flight with 111 people on board was on Monday halted minutes before take-off from the IGI Airport here after a bomb threat.
A Kathmandu-bound Jet Airways flight with 111 people on board was on Monday halted minutes before take-off from the IGI Airport here after a bomb threat.
The plane was grounded and searched thoroughly, according to news agency reports. The stranded flight later got security clearance and took off for Kathmandu at 7.30 pm, after a six-hour delay. The flight departed with all 104 passengers onboard, an airport official said.
The bomb scare occurred at a time when security is at an all-time high in view of the Republic Day celebrations on Tuesday across the country and especially in Delhi.
This is the second incident in the last two days, as on Saturday a Go Air flight from Bhubaneswar for Mumbai was diverted to Nagpur for similar reasons.
The bomb threat call was received at the airport terminal just before the scheduled departure of the Kathmandu-bound flight 9W 260 at 1.25 pm, officials were cited as saying. Officials said the plane was taken to the isolation bay at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and all passengers de-boarded for a thorough anti-sabotage check.
The Bomb Threat Assessment Committee was activated, they said, and a final clearance for the flight to take-off was awaited.
Jet Airways, later in a statement, said that its Kathmandu flight from New Delhi has been delayed due to a security alert. All 104 guests and seven crew disembarked from the aircraft and were taken to the departure waiting area at the Delhi airport, the airline said in a statement adding that security agencies were conducting a search of the aircraft. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our guests. Security of our guests and crew is always our number one priority,” Jet Airways was quoted as saying in the statement.
