MUMBAI: A Vistara flight from Paris with 306 people on board received a bomb scare that had the pilots carry out an emergency landing at Mumbai airport on Sunday.
A handwritten note on an airsickness bag threatening a bomb was reported by Vistara, said sources. A full scale emergency was declared at 19.08 am and the flight UK024 landed safely at 10.19 am.The aircraft was taken to an isolated bay for the security checks.
Vistara spokesperson said: “We confirm that a security concern has been noted by our staff while onboard Vistara flight UK 024 operating from Paris to Mumbai on 2 June 2024. Following the protocol, we immediately informed the relevant authorities.” The official added that “the flight has landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai and we are fully cooperating with the security agencies for all the mandatory checks.”
This is the third incident of bomb scare involving airlines in a week. The previous two incidents occurred on domestic flights. On Saturday an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Mumbai received a bomb threat following which the aircraft carried out an emergency landing in Mumbai.
The earlier instance occurred on May 28 on a Delhi to Varanasi flight.
In the IndiGo incident, the flight had left Chennai around 6.50 am and was enroute to its destination when the bomb alert was received. “An unclaimed remote was found on board the aircraft,” said a source. The pilots informed the Mumbai air traffic control and sought an emergency landing.
Last week, IndiGo flight to Varanasi from Delhi with 176 passengers on board received a bomb threat. The passengers were evacuated through emergency exits at the Delhi airport. Video clips of the evacuation showed passengers and even flight crew evacuating through the slides with their cabin baggages in tow. Under the safety norms which state that an evacuation should be completed within 90 minutes, cabin baggage is supposed to be left behind in the aircraft. Passengers are supposed to not carry any items and even footwear like stilettos should be removed so as to not damage the inflatable slides.
Following the Delhi incident, IndiGo derostered two pilots and cabin crew members for not following the SOPs on evacuation.