Mumbai bound IndiGo flight gets bomb threat; passengers safe, airline responds

A Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight from Chennai received a bomb threat message on Tuesday, said an airport source. However, the plane landed safely at the Mumbai airport at 10.30 p.m. He stated that the bomb threat message was received at the private airline's call centre in New Delhi.

In an official statement, the airline said, “IndiGo flight 6E 5149, operating from Chennai to Mumbai, had received a bomb threat. Upon landing in Mumbai, the crew followed protocol and the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay.”

“All passengers have safely disembarked the aircraft. We are working with security agencies and post completion of all security checks, the aircraft will be positioned back in the terminal area,” the statement added as quoted by newswire PTI.

Earlier in the day, many other airports, including Chennai, Varanasi, Jaipur, and Patna, received bomb threat emails. However, each was found to be a hoax when authorities scrambled contingency measures and carried out hours-long anti-sabotage checks.

Security was beefed up as agencies swept the airport terminals after the emails were received around 12:40 p.m. from the ID exhumedyou888@gmail.com, PTI reported.

According to officials, the airports in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore, and Jabalpur were among those that received the hoax threats.

An online group called "KNR" is suspected to be behind these hoax threat emails. The group reportedly issued similar emails to several schools in the Delhi-NCR on May 1, sources told PTI.

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.”

On Monday, a Dubai-bound plane also received a bomb threat via email at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi, said authorities, adding that nothing suspicious was found when the flight was checked.

(With PTI inputs)