Bomb hoax at Delhi airport causes panic

NEW DELHI: A fake bomb threat caused panic among passengers at the Indira Gandhi International Airport – New Delhi on Monday.

At Delhi airport, a security staff cracked a bomb hoax on Monday after one of the flight passengers noticed a bomb threat message carved on the back of the seat.

The incident occurred when a passenger on the SpiceJet flight noticed a bomb threat scribbled on the back of a seat, which alarmed other travellers.

There was a bomb on this aircraft, which was written in Hindi, on the fabric of one of the seats. However, after extensively inspecting the aeroplane for any explosive material, security later determined it to be a false alarm.

On Monday afternoon, a plane from Jaisalmer touched down at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. Nobody noticed the message written on the back of this seat; likely so because the seat right behind it was empty.

The moment they heard of this threat, the passengers—who were still descending from the plane—went berserk in a matter of seconds. The flight was soon emptied and the airport authorities were alerted about the message. The security agencies including CISF and Delhi Police formed into action after they received the information.

The plane was transferred to a remote area of the airport right away, where it was thoroughly searched for more than two hours by security personnel. Since nothing was discovered during the search, the message was deemed to be fake.

The authorities are now searching for the culprit who carved the fake threat on the seat. They are scanning passenger data and using CCTV to get possible clues about the culprit.

The SpiceJet flight – running from Jaisalmer to Delhi – was carrying a total of 117 passengers, none of whom were seated behind the seat on which the threat was written.