Bomb Threat: Vistara To Send Substitute Flight For Passengers Stranded In Turkey | A Look At Recent Incidents

Vistara Airlines on Saturday announced the dispatch of an alternative aircraft along with a fresh set of crew to fly the passengers of its of its Mumbai-Frankfurt flight who are currently stranded in Turkey's Erzurum Airport as the flight was diverted yesterday upon receiving an alleged bomb threat. The aircraft reportedly was carrying 247 passengers and crew on board.

The substitute aircraft is expected to arrive at the Turkish airport by 12.25 (local time) and depart for Frankfurt with all passengers by 14.30 hours (Local time), Vistara said in an updated statement of X (formerly Twitter).

"Since the crew have exceeded their duty time limitation, we are sending an alternate aircraft, with a fresh set of crew, to Erzurum Airport, Turkey, which is expected to arrive there by 1225 hours (local time) and depart for Frankfurt, with all customers, by 1430 hours(local time)," Vistara said in its updated statement.

Bomb threat in Mumbai-Frankfurt Vistara flight

On Friday, the flight UK 27, operating on Mumbai-Frankfurt route, departed from Mumbai at 1.01 pm on Friday after a delay of an hour and was scheduled to arrive in Frankfurt (Germany) at 5.30 pm (local time).

However, the pilots resorted to rerouting the Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft to Turkey after the airline's crew on-board found a paper note stating that there was a bomb on the aircraft, Vistara sources had said.

It said that all the necessary checks have been conducted and the customers, along with the crew and aircraft, have been cleared by the security agencies.

In the meantime, all efforts are being made to minimize inconvenience to customers, including offering them refreshments and meals, Vistara said in the statement.

On Friday the airline had said its Flight UK27 from Mumbai to Frankfurt, "has been diverted to Turkey (Erzurum airport) due to security reasons and has landed safely at 1905 hours", without divulging the number of passengers and crew on board the aircraft.

Bomb threats: A look at recent incidents

Bomb threat to Air India flight at Thiruvananthapuram Airport

On August 22, Air India's Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram flight was put in the isolation bay and its passengers were evacuated following a bomb threat, sources said.

A full emergency was declared at the Thiruvananthapuram airport upon the arrival of Air India flight 657, news agency PTI cited airport sources as saying.

As per reports, the flight carrying 135 passengers landed at the airport around 8 am and was promptly shifted to an isolation bay. Details on the origin of the threat and other information are yet to be known.

The pilot reportedly communicated the bomb threat as the aircraft approached the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Security agencies and a bomb detection squad are currently inspecting the aircraft while the passengers are waiting for their luggage to be delivered.

Air India flight from Delhi To Visakhapatnam receives hoax bomb threat

On September 4, an Air India flight going from New Delhi to Visakhapatnam received a bomb threat, but it was found to be a hoax after a thorough scrutiny on landing in the port city, said an official.

Visakhapatnam Airport Director S Raja Reddy said the Delhi Police received the bomb threat call and alerted the airline and the Visakhapatnam airport.

After deboarding passengers from the aircraft and checking it, that nothing suspicious was found, the director noted.

Bomb threat at Kochi airport

On August 7, a fake bomb threat was made by a passenger during a security check before travelling to Thailand from Kerala's Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL). The police later took the concerned passenger in custody.

According to a statement issued by the airport, the bomb threat was received by the passenger travelling on Thai Lion Air flight SL211.

"The passenger issued a threat to airline security staff during the Secondary ladder point Check (SLPC) at gate number 19. In response to the bomb threat, the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) convened at 0200 hours at Terminal 3 and declared the threat as non-specific", read the statement.

Bomb threats: Recent incidents at Delhi-NCR malls

Within three days since two bomb threats were received by the authorities of Gurgaon's Ambience Mall and Noida's DLF Mall of India via e-mail, several other popular malls in the National Capital Region (NCR) received similar threats on Tuesday.

As per Delhi Police, Chanakya Mall, Select CityWalk, Ambience Mall, DLF, Cine Polis, Pacific Mall, and Primus Hospital and Unity group received a threat mail which said that "the explosive will go off in few hours".

However, after conducting anti-sabotage checks in all the above cases, police found nothing suspicious.