Bomb threat on New York bound Air India flight, diverted to Delhi airport

New Delhi : A New York bound Air India flight from Mumbai was diverted to Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Monday morning after receiving bomb threat by an unknown source.

Air India in an official statement said, "Flight AI119 operating Mumbai to JFK on October 14 received a specific security alert and on instructions of the government’s security regulatory committee was diverted to Delhi. All passengers have disembarked and are at the Delhi airport terminal. Our colleagues on ground are making sure to minimise the inconvenience caused to our guests by this unexpected disruption. Air India is committed to and accords top priority to the safety and security of its passengers and crew."

According to media reports, three international flights originating from Mumbai had received bomb threat; other than USA, the two flights included Indigo’s one flight to Muscat and another to Jeddah.

The bomb threat for Indigo flights were received before they took off and they were moved immediately to the isolation bay for security checks on Monday morning.

After a thorough checkup the flights were released for take-off to their respective destinations after a delay of approximately seven hours. According to the live flight tracking website Flightradar24.com, the Muscat flight, which was to depart at 2 am on Monday, took off for its destination at 9.15 am; while flight 6E-57 (Mumbai-Jeddah) was scheduled to depart at 2.05 am and was showing an estimated departure at 12.15 pm.