Mid-air bomb scare on Jet Airways flight

The Royal Oman Police is investigating what appears to be a bomb hoax by one of the 152 passengers on board the Kuwait-Mumbai flight 9W-571 of Jet Airways on Thursday morning.

Speaking to Emirates 24|7, an official source from Jet Airways said the Royal Oman Police is questioning the Indian passenger who is reportedly behind the hoax.

Reports quoting the Royal Oman Police said the Omani authorities received a tip-off that a bomb was placed on the Jet Airways Boeing 737-800, flight 9W-571 from Kuwait to Mumbai.

After the emergency landing, the 160 people on board disembarked and the plane was searched. No bomb was found and the plane was authorised to take off again.

“Most probably the passenger could be mentally unstable due to stress. We have not got any details from the Royal Oman Police, which is investigating the case.

“On receiving the alert, the plane was immediately diverted to Muscat, which was the nearest airport. We did not want to take any chance as what was at stake was the life of 152 passengers and the crew on board,” the source said.

“At the moment the passenger is still in police custody and they are looking at all angles, including his mental state. Normally in such cases, investigators will seek medical help to establish his mental health. If it is found that the man was mentally unstable and stressed due to financial issues, the case would be closed.”

The man is an Indian national and works in Kuwait.

The passenger told Jet Air crew members that there was a bomb on board, the Times of Oman quoted Riyaz Kuttery, country manager of Jet Airways as saying. As the incident happened two hours after the flight took off from Kuwait, investigators are also looking into whether the passenger was drunk.

Media reports earlier wrongly quoted Oman News Agency (ONA) that the incident happened in Air India.

“It was a mistake that occurred when the word ‘al hind’ was translated from Arabic as ‘Indian airline’. The reports said the incident involved ‘Air India’ due to the wording in a press release that a "Boeing 737 of an Indian airline’ was diverted to Muscat.”

“Air India, Indian Airlines and Air India Express do not operate in the Kuwait-Mumbai sector and it was a mistake on the part of the agency which misinterpreted an Indian carrier as Air India,” The Times of Oman quoted Mohit Sen, country manager (Oman) of Air India.

According to an Aviation Herald report: “A Jet Airways Boeing 737-800, flight 9W-571 (dep Aug 19) from Kuwait City (Kuwait) to Mumbai (India) with 160 people on board, was enroute overhead the Arabian Sea about 2 hours into the flight, when Omani authorities received a tip-off that a bomb might be aboard the aircraft. The crew decided to divert the flight to Muscat (Oman) where the plane landed safely at 1am local time, about 2.30 hours after departure.”

“A subsequent search of the aircraft, luggage and passengers found no trace of any explosives. The airplane reached Mumbai with a delay of 5.45 hours as a result.

Some countries have strict penalties for making bomb hoax calls with a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment.

Several Indian airliners were involved in similar incidents in the recent past. In May 2010, passengers of a Kingfisher Airlines Mumbai-Lucknow flight were taken off and a rigorous search of the aircraft was conducted after a call warned of a bomb on board.

Similarly, a low-intensity country-made bomb was found inside  Kingfisher flight IT-4731 from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram, which was later traced to an employee of a cleaning company.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.