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In a strange case of sheer misunderstanding, an airline staffer's act of mistaking the word "ballast" for "blast" created a security scare at the Raja Bhoj International Airport in Bhopal, which reportedly led to sounding of an alert at the establishment, officials informed on Friday.
The airport officials noted that the incident occurred on Thursday morning, and in a statement, the airport authorities said, “at 0925 hrs, Indigo ticketing counter received a call enquiring about ballast in flight 6E-7931 bound for Agra, which was misunderstood by the Indigo staff as blast. The BATC (Bomb Threat Assessment Committee) was called and after analysing the facts it declared the call as non-specific."
Additionally, the acting director of the airport Amrit Minj said as the emergency was declared at the airport, all the security systems were activated security breach, noting that, "unfortunately, a fast-moving vehicle was crossing through the tyre killers, when the emergency switch of the tyre killers got activated and blocked the vehicle." The acting director further informed that, “airport management regrets the inconvenience and damage caused due to this unfortunate incident." Interestingly, the term ballast, meaning extra weight, is a term used by airlines to add load to the aircraft in case it was not having sufficient passenger load in the flight to maintain balance in air, according to news agency PTI report.
Meanwhile, an airport personnel said on Friday that as the woman staffer had joined recently, she was unable to differentiate between the terms ballast and blast, which led to the confusion. The call was received from Gurgaon, he said. "Though ballast is a widely used term in aviation and railways, it is difficult for a fresher or common man to understand the difference between the two," he said. No action has been taken in this matter so far.
In another development, earlier this week, a Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh was grounded after take-off due to a technical snag, an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said. The flight returned to Bhopal's Raja Bhoj International Airport after take-off due to the snag in the morning, he said. It was carrying 183 passengers, 117 of whom were adjusted in another aircraft in the evening by cancelling a Delhi-bound flight, the official informed
(With inputs from PTI)