New Delhi: Eleven flights of private carrier Indigo were grounded across Delhi and other airports on Wednesday following a bomb threat call.
Airline sources said the caller, who identified himself as Smith from the US, said at least 11 flights of IndiGo, which were either ready for take off or had already departed from around 10 airports, were facing bomb threat from a woman flyer.
The bomb threat call was recieved at Indigo's call centre at Chennai and within minutes security agencies were informed.
The threat was for flights out of major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Vadodara, Guwahati, Goa and Kochi.
"The caller, who identified himself as one Smith from the US, said that a woman passenger allegedly belonging to the ISI of Pakistan was carrying a bomb and could blow up one of the aircraft," a source told PTI.
The 11 fligts were Vadodara-Delhi (6E 591), Kochi-Delhi (516), Delhi-Srinagar (853), Delhi-Chennai (443), Ahmedabad-Kolkata (135), Delhi-Mumbai (223), Chennai-Mumbai (612), Delhi-Goa (329), Guwahati-Delhi (571), Delhi-Ahmedabad (161) and Delhi-Vadodara (734).
Soon after the call was made, the Bomb Threat Assessment Committees (BTAC) at different airports swung into action. The planes, which were mentioned by the caller, were isolated and subject to extensive checks.
"We are actively engaged in working very closely with the concerned agencies. We can assure you that our operations are safe...," IndiGo said.
The latest incident of bomb scare comes a day after the Delhi airport received calls about presence of bombs on five Jet Airways flights that originated from the national capital hours after the Brussels bomb attacks.
In recent weeks, Delhi airport has been receiving many calls about bomb threats and so far all of them have turned out to be hoax.
Once a bomb threat is received, a flight is grounded till a through check is done.
Grounding and checking a flight would cost an airline Rs 7 lakh every hour. It takes at least five hours to thoroughly check an aircraft. Which means, this bomb threat call would cost Indigo Airlines Rs 2.5 to 3 crores.
(With PTI inputs)
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