The “bomb threat” to Air India's 191 Mumbai-Newark flight, which made a precautionary landing at London Stansted Airport, was a hoax, an official of the airline said, adding that the flight has landed safely at London and all the passengers were safe. The official added that the call received at Mumbai Airport was a hoax and that there was no security threat to the plane.
UK’s Ministry of Defence said that British fighter jets safely escorted the Air India plane to Stansted airport. The London Stansted Airport, in a statement, said that the flight landed at around 10:15 hours with the Essex Police in attendance. It added that the flight was parked on an isolated stand, away from the normal airport operations. “Our runway has now re-opened and is fully operational following a precautionary landing of Air India flight,” it added. Royal Air Force tweeted about the incident: “Quick Reaction Alert Typhoons were scrambled earlier from @RAFConingsby to intercept a civilian aircraft; this was safely escorted to Stansted. The Typhoons were authorised to travel at supersonic speed and any inconvenience caused to local residents is regretted,” the warfare force wrote on Twitter.
The Air India flight packed with 327 passengers was flying over Ireland when the airline messaged its pilots about a bomb threat received via email from a sender who claimed to be from an anti-Israel terror outfit. “The mail spoke about fuel mixed with explosives to target three flights, one of them AI 191,” said a source.
In an hour, the flight landed safely at London Stansted - the designated airport for aviation security emergencies - but not without high drama as the Air India Boeing 777 was escorted by two supersonic Typhoons from the British Royal Air Force. In a scramble to reach the suspicious aircraft so as to prevent a possible 9/11 kind of situation, the Typhoons broke the sound barrier somewhere over the East Midlands, UK. The two distinct sonic booms sent the local residents and social media into a tizzy.
Photographs on Twitter showed Air India passengers queued up along the aircraft ladder waiting their turn to be frisked on the tarmac with cabin bags checked and cleared by security agencies and sniffer dogs. Videos on Twitter showed three aircraft, Air India aircraft with an RAF jet on each side, flying as if in formation.
Essex Police said: “Following investigations on the plane, we have now been able to establish there is nothing suspicious on board. The aircraft has been handed back to Stansted Airport and the operator.”
