Air India's Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram flight was on Thursday morning 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.
What did Air India say?
In a official statement, Air India said that a specific security alert was detected on flight AI 657 during cruise from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram and "the crew carried out all the laid down security drills keeping passenger safety as top priority."
"All passengers and crew disembarked safely. Air India accords top priority to the safety of its passengers and crew," an airline spokesperson said.
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.
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.
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