Two men from Thane arrested for threatening to ‘hijack’ plane

Earlier this month, a Mumbai-based businessman was held for placing a threat note in the toilet of a Delhi-bound plane. (Representational Image)

TWO persons from Thane were held at the Cochin International Airport on Monday afternoon after they allegedly threatened to “hijack” a Mumbai-bound plane. The incident delayed the flight for almost two hours. Clince Verghese and M Menon were held for joking about placing a bomb in the plane. A case had been registered against them. “In a conversation, while boarding the aircraft, Clince said that ‘he will hijack the plane with a happy bomb’. This sentence was overhead by a Jet employee who informed the aircraft crew,” said an official from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

“After the CISF intervened, the two were detained. The flight was searched for any untoward activity or object,” the official added. “Jet Airways flight 9W 825 Cochin-Mumbai was rescheduled to depart from Cochin at 2.02 pm, after a delay of 2 hours on account of a security-related matter. The airline has informed the relevant authority of the same for further action and has offered full cooperation as required,” an official statement from Jet Airways read. Earlier this month, a Mumbai-based businessman was held for placing a threat note in the toilet of a Delhi-bound plane.

Officials from the CISF said words like ‘hijack’ and ‘bomb’ “invokes fear among passengers” and that “strict action is taken against individuals who use such words in a certain way”.