Air India Flight to London Receives Bomb Threat, Accused Nabbed

Kochi: London-bound Air India flight from Cochin Airport in Kerala received a bomb threat on Tuesday. But no explosives were found during the search operation.

A man suspected of making the threatening call was nabbed by the authorities. Security personnel conducted extensive checks on the aircraft and found no danger. After that the flight was allowed to take off.

A bomb threat call was received by the Air India call centre in Mumbai for flight AI 149, scheduled to fly from Cochin to London Gatwick.

The alert was promptly communicated to Air India in Kochi here and the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) at 01:22 hours.

Following this, thorough security checks were conducted by the Airport Security Group (ASG-CISF), airline security personnel, and inline baggage screening systems after moving the aircraft to an isolated aircraft parking point.

Investigations revealed the call was made by Suhaib (29), a native of Kondotty in Malappuram district, who was scheduled to travel to London on the AI 149 flight. Suhaib, along with his wife and daughter, was intercepted by ASG at Cochin Airport’s international departure terminal during check-in. He was handed over to the police for interrogation and legal action.