'Bomb on plane' threat creates flutter at Bengaluru airport

BENGALURU: A piece of tissue paper with a note scribbled in Hindi - 'Don't land, bomb on this plane' - and found in the lavatory of a Jaipur-Bengaluru flight sent the airport authorities into a tizzy on Sunday night.

While the bomb squad and Central Industrial Security Force personnel searched the IndiGo plane and checked passenger bags to declare the threat a hoax, 174 passengers and a dozen crew members were made to undergo a handwriting test before the sleuths zeroed in on two passengers as suspects.
The note written in blue ink read: 'Land mat karna. Iss flight mein bomb hain.' Anoop A Shetty, deputy commissioner of police (northeast), confirmed the incident. He said they have registered a non-cognizable report and have not made any arrests yet.
Sources in the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) said the IndiGo plane 6E-556 from Jaipur arrived at KIA at 9.26pm Sunday.
Bomb threat: Two under scanner
One of the crew members saw a torn piece of tissue on the floor of the rear lavatory. The crew member informed the Captain, who, in turn, alerted Air Traffic Control. The CISF team reached the aircraft in minutes.
"Without informing the passengers about the situation that might have caused panic, the plane was moved to an isolation bay near the cargo terminal. The passengers were taken into the terminal. Their bags were removed from the plane and checked with metal detectors," said a CISF source part of the operation. After an hour-long search, the threat was called a hoax.
A CISF team analyzed the handwriting of passengers. Those who couldn't write in Hindi were removed from the test. Twenty people were shortlisted and finally sleuths zeroed in on two suspects, who were questioned about the note. All the passengers were allowed to go home after a two-hour delay. The two suspects are on the investigators' radar.