Mumbai Seven flights, including an Air India plane headed to Chicago that was forced to land at a remote Canadian airport and an Air India Express service to Singapore that was escorted by two F-15 fighters away from populated areas, were diverted, delayed or subjected to a search on Tuesday after posts on social media said they had bombs on board.
Tuesday’s disrupted flights come a day after three similar threats for airlines (and another for a train) were made on Monday, prompting authorities to convene a high-level meeting for Wednesday. None of the planes had any explosives on board, airlines and aviation officials said. “Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Monday held a meeting with the Bureau of Civil Aviation, CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), and other senior officials in airport security over the bomb threats. The ministry will hold a high-level meeting on Wednesday,” news agency ANI reported.
The threats were issued to Air India Express flight IX765 from Jaipur to Bengaluru via Ayodhya, SpiceJet flight SG116 from Darbhanga to Mumbai, Akasa Air flight QP1373 from Bagdogra to Bengaluru, an Air India flight AI127 from Delhi to Chicago, Indigo flight 6E98 from Dammam (Saudi Arabia) to Lucknow (6E 98), Alliance Air flight 9I650 from Amritsar to Dehradun and Air India Express flight IX684 from Madurai to Singapore.
In all of these cases, the threats came from one X account, @schizobomber777, which was suspended during the day. The account, with no other identifier, was created earlier this month.