Mumbai: An IndiGo flight from Chennai to Mumbai landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) at 10.24 pm on Tuesday amidst a full emergency after receiving a bomb threat.
Upon landing, the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay, where it was checked thoroughly by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel. The flight, 6E 5149, had 196 passengers and seven crew members on board.
“All passengers have safely disembarked the aircraft,” an IndiGo spokesperson said. “We are working with the security agencies and, post completion of all security checks, the aircraft will be positioned back in the terminal area.”
The incident occurred on a day when 41 airports across the country, including CSMIA, received bomb threat emails, prompting authorities to scramble contingency measures and carry out anti-sabotage checks that lasted hours. Each of the threats turned out to be a hoax. PTI quoted sources at Mumbai airport saying there was no impact on services as the threat was “non-specific”.
The emails received by the airports carried almost the identical message: “Hello, there are explosives hidden in the Airport. The bombs will soon explode. You will all die.” An online group called “KNR” is suspected to be behind these hoax threat emails.
Earlier, on June 3, a Delhi-Mumbai Akasa Air flight was diverted to Ahmedabad after it received a bomb threat. On June 2, a Vistara flight operating on the Paris-Mumbai route received a bomb threat, after which a full emergency was declared at the Mumbai airport prior to its arrival. On June 1, an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Mumbai with 172 passengers on board received a bomb threat, following which the aircraft made an emergency landing in Mumbai.
Hospitals affected too
It wasn’t just airports and airlines that were targets. Around 60 hospitals across Mumbai also received hoax emails over the last two days about bombs kept in their premises. This included both private and public hospitals, according to the police.
“The hospitals, after receiving the emails, immediately informed the local police and carried out thorough checks. The emails said the bombs have been kept under beds and in toilets. The hospitals immediately carried anti-sabotage checks and found nothing,” said a police officer.
Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, SL Raheja Hospital, SevenHills Hospital, Bhabha Hospital, Saint George Hospital, Hiranandani Hospital and KEM hospital were among the hospitals that received the emails.
The police said all the emails were sent using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to the hospitals’ public email IDs.
(With inputs from PTI)
