[New Delhi]Royal Nepal Airlines+Air India Flights Grounded At IGIA For 2nd Round Security Check: Bomb Threat Call
Two flights bound for Nepal and Bhubaneswar were today grounded just before taking off after security agencies were alerted of a bomb threat call on the two airliners at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA)
Passengers on board the two aircraft– Royal Nepal Airlines (Delhi-Kathmandu) and Air India (Delhi-Bhubaneswar– were evacuated and taken to the isolation bay where security agencies carried out anti-sabotage checks after a threat call was received by the airport control room at about 10 AM.
While the Kathmandu flight (RA-206) had 155 passengers and nine crew members, the flight bound for Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar (AI-075) had 178 fliers and seven crew members.
Passengers of both the flights and their baggage were subjected to a second round of checking with the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) at the IGIA monitoring the situation.
Security personnel from the CISF and Delhi Police cordoned off the two planes along with bomb disposal squads,
They added the threat was triggered after the airport control room received a call from a person identifying himself as Abhishek Singh, a “CBI officer” and said that while there is a “time bomb” in the Nepal bound flight, some “movement” has happened at the terminal area to hit the AI flight.
Officials said the agencies are trying to track the number and location from where the call was made to the airport call centre.
Preliminary reports said four Members of Parliament were to travel on the AI flight.
Talking about the menace of hoax calls, Central Industrial Security Force chief Surender Singh had said while 44 such calls were received last year at various airports the force is deployed, 16 such calls have been made till early March this year.
Tag: hoax calls at airports.
Royal Nepal Airlines+Air India Flights Grounded At IGIA:Bomb Threat
CISF Detected 60 Suspicious Flying Objects at Sensitive IGI Airport in 3 Months
CISF DG Surendr Singh
The Delhi International Airport witnessed over 60 unidentified objects in its air space in three months from October last year.
CISF Director General Surender Singh, during an annual interaction with journalists , said a total of 62 such incidents have been reported from October 27 last year till today.
CISF Top Brass Surender Singh Said “These objects, however, like
toy balloons,
kites,
Chinese balloons among others.
It is very difficult to make out (about the kind of the flying objects with naked eyes),”
The DG said the government will soon come out with “operational guidelines” to tackle such cases after a similar incident was reported late last year when a suspected drone-like object was spotted near Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) runway.
“This is a general problem which is not only at the airport.
There are other sensitive installations too (near the airport area). Soon guidelines will be out determining the responsibility of each agency in such cases,”
While the Central Industrial Security Force is the overall in-charge for airport security in the country, it is assisted by local police and the Indian Air Force, more pro-actively at sensitive facilities like IGIA.
Officials said new guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all airports are required while dealing with such potential threats as there are multiple stakeholders in civil aviation security and hence, a clear chain of command and task is required to thwart a possible aerial attack by using these gadgets.
The CISF boss was also asked about the menace of hoax calls received at airports.
The DG said while 44 such calls were received last year at across various airports the force is deployed at, 16 such calls have been made till now this year.
“These instances are considerable…but we take them all very seriously. We assume them to be genuine and all the procedures are undertaken to check them,” he said.
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