mumbai

Updated: Mar 27, 2019 08:13 IST

A Singapore-bound flight from Mumbai was escorted by two F-16 jets from Singapore Air Force on Monday night, after a caller claimed there was a bomb on board the plane. The flight ultimately reached its destination safely and the bomb threat was revealed to be a hoax. The caller was an Australia-based, non-resident Indian (NRI) who was allegedly upset at how his family had been treated by the airlines. Mumbai police has filed a first information report (FIR) charging the caller with criminal intimidation.

A spokesperson for Singapore Airlines said, “Singapore Airlines confirms there was a bomb threat concerning SQ423 operating from Mumbai to Singapore. The aircraft arrived in Singapore on 26 March 2019 at about 0800hrs (local time). We are assisting the authorities with the probe.” The flight had 263 passengers on board. Mumbai Police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is in charge of security at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), said SQ423 took off at its scheduled time of 11.35pm (IST). A call was received at 1.48am, in which the caller said there was a bomb on the flight and that his mother and son were on board. At the time, the flight was in Malaysian airspace. Following the bomb threat, two jets from the Singapore Air Force escorted the aircraft for the remainder of its journey. The Republic of Singapore Air Force, in a Facebook post, said, that “two of our F-16C/Ds were scrambled to intercept a Singapore Airlines flight from Mumbai to Singapore after receiving a bomb threat. Our fighters escorted the airliner till it landed safely at Changi Airport.”

The bomb threat was identified as a hoax after the flight safely landed at Changi Airport at around 5.30am (IST). It appears the caller was upset that his mother and son had been allegedly inconvenienced by the staff of Singapore Airlines at CSMIA. Sahar police said the caller’s mother and son were detained at the airport in Singapore for questioning. The airport police division of Changi Airport declined to comment.

The Sahar police station has registered a FIR against the caller under sections 505 (conducing public mischief), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of IPC. “Once the Singapore authority also registers a case, parallel probes will be initiated by both Singapore police and us,” said the officer.

A former Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) official who did not wished to be named said, “As the case was registered by the local police, no other aviation authority has role to play in it.”