Hijack alert on Mumbai-bound AI flight

An Air India flight to Mumbai from the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport here on Wednesday received a hijack threat, leading to tension and prompting an intense search of the aircraft, officials said.

The pilot received the threat as the flight was preparing for take-off and immediately alerted Air Traffic Control (ATC).

The flight was immediately shifted to an isolation bay, and the security personnel immediately started search operations within the flight. However, as per the latest information available, nothing suspicious had been detected yet.

The airport authorities had not issued any official statement in the matter so far.

However, sources said that the Mumbai-bound Air India flight, with 92 passengers, was waiting for take-off when the pilot was informed of the threat.

As per the initial information available, there was reportedly a note warning that the plane would be hijacked in the flight's toilet, which was noticed by someone.

Acting on the instructions sent from the ATC, the pilot thereafter moved the plane to the isolation bay. The passengers on the plane were also disembarked and taken to a safe place. The passengers seemed quite terrified by the incident, with panic visible on their faces.

There were two consecutive hoax bomb threats at Kolkata Airport late last month.

On October 23, a bomb threat, written on tissue paper, was found at the Kolkata airport. Again, on October 24, a bomb threat written on the washroom mirror of an IndiGo flight from Thailand's Phuket to Kolkata resulted in an extensive security check.

However, in both cases, nothing suspicious was detected, and the alerts were found to be hoaxes.