Bomb scare grounds two flights at Delhi airport

New Delhi: Two flights bound for Nepal and Bhubaneswar were grounded on Thursday just before take off after security agencies were alerted of a bomb threat on the two airliners at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi.

Officials said passengers onboard the two aircraft-- Royal Nepal Airlines (Delhi-Kathmandu) and Air India (Delhi-Bhubaneswar) -- were evacuated and taken to the isolation bay where security agencies carried out anti-sabotage checks after a threat call was received by the airport control room at about 10 am.

While the Kathmandu flight (RA-206) had 155 passengers and nine crew members, the flight bound for Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar (AI-075) had 178 fliers and seven crew members.

Passengers of both the flights and their baggage were subjected to a second round of checking with the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) at the IGIA monitoring the situation.

Security personnel from the CISF and Delhi Police along with bomb disposal squads cordoned off the two planes, the officials said.

They added that the threat was triggered after the airport control room received a call from a person identifying himself as Abhishek Singh, a  ‘CBI officer’ and said that there is a ‘time bomb’ in the Nepal bound flight and some ‘movement’ has happened at the terminal area to hit the Air India flight.

Officials said the agencies are trying to track the number and location from where the call was made to the airport call centre. Anti-sabotage checks are on at the two aircraft, they said.

Preliminary reports said four Members of Parliament were to travel on the Air India flight.

Talking about the menace of hoax calls, Central Industrial Security Force chief Surender Singh had said that 44 such calls were received last year at various airports the force is deployed, while 16 such calls have been made till early March this year.