An Air India flight that had just departed from Mumbai bound for New York was forced to divert to Delhi following a bomb threat posted on social media. The flight, operated by one of the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ERs made an emergency landing whereby all passengers and crew were safely deplaned while the aircraft was searched.
The drama unfolded on the morning of Monday, October 14, 202, as the affected flight (flight number AI119), departed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai (BOM) at 02:27 local time for its 15-hour flight to New York-JFK Airport (JFK). The aircraft took off and initially headed north climbing to 29,000ft. Having reached its initial cruising altitude 23 minutes after take-off, the flight continued for a further 42 minutes.
However, data obtained from Flightradar24 shows that at 03:32, the flight began descending overhead the city of Jaipur and was re-directed towards Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)where the plane made a successful landing at 04:26, around 90 minutes after departure.
As reported by local media sources, Mumbai Airport received a message via X (formerly Twitter) regarding a bomb threat concerning flight AI119 heading to New York. The message was subsequently conveyed to Delhi security agencies, and the call was taken to divert the aircraft to Delhi for the aircraft to be searched. According to a statement issued by Delhi Police, “all standard safety protocols are being diligently followed to ensure the safety of passengers and crew on board. All security agencies at the airport are on alert.”
Air India issued its own statement regarding the incident after the flight had safely landed in Delhi: “Flight AI119 operating Mumbai to New York-JFK on October 14, 2024, received a specific security alert and on the instructions of the government’s security regulatory committee was diverted to Delhi. All passengers have disembarked and are at the Delhi airport terminal.”
“Our colleagues on the ground are making sure to minimize the inconvenience caused to our guests by this unexpected disruption. Air India is committed to and accords top priority to the safety and security of its passengers and crew,” the statement ended.
At the time of writing, it remains unclear what will happen to the flight and its passengers from this point, given that the aircraft has been on the ground in Delhi for over seven hours. Given flight crew duty hours the airline may well be sourcing an alternative crew to take the flight onward to the US – a task made significantly easier as Dehi is also a long-haul crew base for the carrier.
Indian commercial aviation has become an increasing target for hoaxers in recent months with several incidents similar in their design to this latest one taking place. On the same day as the Air India AI119 incident above, two IndiGo Airlines flights were the subject of similar bomb threats. One flight was scheduled to fly to Muscat in Oman while the other was to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Both flights were searched before departure with no explosive devices found.
Meanwhile, the previous day (Sunday, October 13, 2024) saw another Indigo flight heading from Delhi to Chennai with 169 passengers onboard being searched before it departed due to a specific bomb warning made against the flight. Again, no such device was found.
Additionally, on October 5, 2024, Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar International Airport (IDR) located in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore province received a bomb threat by email following which the police registered it as a hoax. The mail sender also threatened to blow up other airports in the country. In a separate incident, the country’s Vadodara Airport (BDQ) received a bomb threat via e-mail also on October 5, 2024, promoting a thorough search of the facility.