LONDON – Russian airline Aeroflot have become the most recent carrier to receive a bomb threat with news of a threat made against a flight operating to Delhi Indira Ghandi airport today.
According to Indian news source ANI, the Russian carrier Aeroflot received the bomb threat whilst scheduled flight SU 232 was enroute from its departure point at Moscow (SVO) to Delhi Indira Ghandi Airport (DEL) in India.
The flight departed Moscow uneventfully and was scheduled to land at DEL at 3:20am local time this morning. The aircraft operating the route was a Boeing 777-300 series aircraft, registered RA-73144.
Source: Flightradar24
ANI report that at around 11:15pm, advice was received of a bomb onboard the flight via an “electronic medium.”
According to FlightRadar24, the aircraft made a landing at Indira Ghandi Airport at 2:48 local time. Authorities were in attendance for the aircraft’s arrival, and the B777 was placed in an isolation bay whilst the aircraft, passengers and luggage were checked.
All passengers and crew members were subsequently disembarked, and nothing suspicious was found.
This week’s UK Jet2 incident
Today’s Aeroflot incident becomes the latest in a string of recent similar bomb threats. The most recent occurred this week when a Jet2 Airbus A321 operating on a scheduled flight from Turkey to Manchester airport was brought in under RAF fighter escort after a bomb threat was made.
In that instance the flight was diverted to London Stansted Airport as a precaution.
Recent bomb threats in India
This is the second time in as many months that Indira Ghandi Airport has been placed on alert following a bomb threat. Just last month, when a London-bound flight operated by Air India became the target of a bomb threat.
India’s Mumbai Airport was also placed on alert on 1 October, when an email threat was received by the airline IndiGo, concerning their scheduled flight 6E 6045 operating between Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and Ahmedabad.
The flight was held at Mumbai while authorities investigated the incident, however an inspection of the aircraft revealed nothing suspicious, and the email was similarly deemed to be a hoax.
It was the second bomb threat that IndiGo had experienced in as many months. The carrier also received a bomb threat against a scheduled flight operating from Chennai to Dubai on August 27.
Singapore Changi incident
Last month, on September 27, a Singapore Airlines flight between San Francisco (SFO), United States and Singapore Changi (SIN), Singapore, was escorted by fighter jets to Changi following a bomb threat by a passenger onboard.
Whilst the recent spate of bomb scares have proven to be hoaxes, they serve as a salient reminder of ongoing security issues as many airlines continue to struggle with the surge in demand for air travel whilst managing operational and staffing elements of their business.
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