Express Illustration.
BENGALURU: A 48-year-old flyer on an Air India Express flight from Bengaluru to Kochi was offloaded from the flight and an FIR booked against him as he claimed to have a bomb in his hand baggage just before the flight was to take off. The incident happened on Sunday evening at Terminal 2.
According to Airport police, the incident happened at 5.25 pm, just five minutes before the scheduled departure of flight No. I5 990. The flyer Saju K Kumaran works at a pharmaceutical company in Peenya Industrial Area.
According to CISF sources, “Due to the high alert in place at airports presently, an additional checking of passengers is done after the shuttle bus takes flyers from the boarding gate to the flight and they climb up the ladder to board the flight. Flyers are randomly checked by the airline staffers. This is just an enhanced layer of security called as Secondary Ladder Point Check (SLPC).”
Kumaran’s hand baggage was checked by a staffer and he felt irritated about another check being done, said a source.
“He did not co-operate with the SLPC staff. He also blurted out that his bag had a bomb in it.” The airline alerted the CISF’s Airport Security Group control room.
CISF arrived and offloaded the passenger and took him to the airport police station.
He has been booked under Section 505 of the IPC, which deals with statements that cause public mischief and shall be punished with three years imprisonment or with fine or both.
“It is a non-congizable offence and permission has been sought from the court to interrogate him now,” said a cop.
“Usage of the word bomb is a strict no-no at any airport in the world as it causes unnecessary panic. Hence we have to take stringent action in such cases. One man’s mischief can impact the schedule of many passengers,” said a CISF official.
The Bomb Threat Assessment Committee needs to be convened and many other related action have to be taken in the interest of passenger’s safety, he added.
The flight took off 22 minutes later, reveals a website that tracks flights.
Air India Express is yet to get back with their response.
