By time AI got mail, plane was in German airspace

(The Air India aircraft that was diverted following a threat mail and landed in Stansted, London, on Thursday)

(With inputs from Naomi Canton)

MUMBAI: An Air India flight from Mumbai to Newark packed with 327 passengers was flying over Ireland on Thursday 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.Minutes after the aircraft touched down, Air India tweeted about the precautionary landing at Stansted, followed by Stansted airport authority and RAF. 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. Another video recorded the two distinct sonic booms.An Air India spokesperson said that the aircraft was diverted following “reports of a security alert”. Around 4pm local time, 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.” Passengers were back at immigration and security at 5pm local time. At the time of going to press, the aircraft and its passengers were still at Stansted.The sequence of events began in the afternoon in Mumbai when Air India was alerted by Mumbai International Airport Ltd about a threat mail they had received. “We always receive terror threat via phone calls. This is the first time that the message came in an email,” said an airport source. The Mumbai airport spokesperson did not comment on the subject. Sources indicated that the mail might have been sent early on Thursday morning.Meanwhile, Air India’s 11-year-old Boeing 777 (VT-ALK) was overflying German airspace when Air India officials went through the contents of the mail. “The sender claimed to be from an anti-Israeli group. The mail said that explosives have been mixed with fuel to blow up Lufthansa Mumbai-Munich flight 767, Swissair Mumbai-Zurich flight 155 and Air India Mumbai-Newark flight 191,” said a source. For Air India officials, the most unnerving bit was the line which said that “we are taking responsibility” for the bombing.Edgy over a possible repeat of the 1985 Kanishka bombing in which an Air India Boeing 747 disintegrated over the Atlantic, killing 329 people, AI officials decided to not let the Boeing 777 proceed with the flight, said a source. Within half an hour, a decision was made and an “ACARS message”, a digital datalink system, which is like a text message that enables airline officials on ground to be in touch with their pilots, was sent.By now the Boeing 777 had crossed the Isle of Man and had entered Northern Ireland airspace. Incidentally, the remnants of Kanishka, which was ripped apart by bombs kept in two check-in bags and fell over the Atlantic, had washed up on the southwest tip of Ireland. “There was no way that we would let this aircraft cross over into Atlantic,” said an AI official.As far as check-in bag bombs were concerned, Air India had one reason to be calm. The said Mumbai-Newark flight had no check-in bags. “There was a problem with an earlier Newark flight and so this aircraft was flying on almost full load. It had weight restrictions and we hadn’t loaded the check-in bags,” said a source.The flight had also departed about three hours late, at 4.50am instead of 1.30am. It’s scheduled time of departure probably offers clues as to why these three flights were mentioned in the threat mail. All the three flights mentioned in the mail had scheduled departures within 30 minutes, with Lufthansa Munich scheduled to depart at 12.50am, Swissair at 12.55am and Air India at 1.30am. Unlike the other two, Air India departed late.Sahar police said MIAL received the threat mail at 10am. Police are in the process of registering a case even as they have started a probe.According to flightradar24, a live flight tracking app, Lufthansa landed at 6.40 GMT, Swiss Air landed at 7.15 GMT, which was when Air India was overhead Germany, north of Dusseldorf. That was when the airline was informed about the mail by MIAL.