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28 March 2024

Bomb hoax delays Gulf-bound Mumbai flight

Published
By Joseph George

A Gulf-bound flight from Mumbai in India was delayed by several hours following a bomb threat on Friday evening. The threat turned out to be a hoax.

The incident occurred less than an hour before the flight was as to depart.

Passengers had already started boarding the flight 6E-61 as the flight was scheduled to depart at 7 pm.

Airport officials immediately towed the airline to a remote parking bay where it was thoroughly searched.

Even the passengers were all searched following the call which later turned out to be a hoax.

According to Indian media reports, the call was received by the airline office in Mumbai at around 6:10pm.

"The caller not only spoke about the bomb, but also specified the flight number before disconnecting the line," said a Times of India report quoting S P Selvam, DIG, CISF, which handles security at Mumbai airport.

Meanwhile, separately, several flights from India to the UAE and the Gulf were delayed during the last 24 to 36 hours due to severe fog in North India.

India’s New Delhi witnessed the most intense fog of this season on Friday with temperatures dropping to a minimum of 2 degree celcius.

Almost all flights both landing and taking off until 11am at the Indira Gandhi International airport were affected. At least ten flights were cancelled and more than 100 flights delayed due the dense fog. An Air India flight - AI 996 from Dubai - had to be diverted to Mumbai around 4.45 am.

All flights between Delhi and airports in the UAE are operating normally and as scheduled this morning.