RGIA Receives Two Bomb Threats in a Day

Hyderabad: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport received two hoax bomb threat mails on Thursday, leading to one of the flights being diverted to Ahmedabad. This left passengers stranded, amid flight delays and cancellations at the airport.

According to RGIA (Outpost) police, the first threat mail was received by the GMR customer support at around 10 am. The mail claimed there was a “human IED” in the aircraft. Following this, the threat assessment committee, comprising local police, CISF staff and airline and airport officials, decided to divert the flight, coming from Media to the city, to Ahmedabad.

At the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, local police, bomb disposal squad and airport officials conducted thorough checks. On finding nothing suspicious, they declared the threat a hoax. There were 180 passengers and six crew members on board when the incident occurred.

The passengers were brought back to the city later in the day.

The second bomb threat was received around 2 pm, concerning Indigo 6E 1422 heading from Sharjah to the city. “As the flight was very close to the RGIA when the threat mail came in, it directly landed here,” an airport official revealed. All passengers were safely deboarded and a close check of the aircraft revealed nothing suspicious.

Police officials said they did not suspect gold smuggling or any other motive behind the several threats received at the airport in recent weeks.

A CISF official said that, as per the standard operating procedure when a threat is received, passengers on diverted international flights are required to undergo immigration and customs checks again. “It depends on how seriously officials assess the threat,” the official added.

Based on a complaint by GMR officials, RGIA police registered two cases. Further investigation into the incident is underway.