Passenger held for hoax bomb call on Kolkata-bound IndiGo flight

An IndiGo flight from Nagpur to Kolkata with 187 passengers on board was forced to make an emergency landing at the Raipur airport on Thursday morning after one of the passengers told the crew there was a "bomb" on the aircraft, officials said.

After landing at the airport in Chhattisgarh, the aeroplane was thoroughly checked by security personnel, but nothing suspicious was found. The passenger was arrested, they said.

The flight 6E-812, with 187 passengers and six crew members on board, landed at the Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur sometime after 9 am following the passenger's claim, said Raipur SSP Santosh Singh.

As per preliminary information, Animesh Mandal told the crew about the presence of a "bomb" in the flight when it was mid-air, he said.

The Air Traffic Control was immediately informed and the flight was diverted to Raipur.  Upon landing, the aircraft was immediately taken to the isolation bay for mandatory security checks, the police official said.

A police team along with a bomb detection and disposal squad reached the airport. All passengers were de-boarded and the aircraft and luggage in it were thoroughly checked by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Raipur police personnel, he said.

After a thorough inspection, the claim about the presence of a bomb was found to be false, Singh said.

Mandal, a resident of Nagpur, was questioned by the Raipur police and later placed under arrest, said the SSP without elaborating on the motive behind the claim.

The flight departed for Kolkata at around noon, airport officials said.