Bomb scare, Goa flight diverted to Uzbekistan

New Delhi, January 21

A Goa-bound chartered flight from Perm, a city in Russia, with 238 passengers on board was diverted to Termez in Uzbekistan in the early hours on Saturday after the authorities at the Dabolim airport in Goa received an email claiming there was a bomb on the plane.

This is the second such incident on the Moscow-Goa route involving the same airline in less than two weeks. On the previous occasion, the plane was diverted to Jamnagar in Gujarat. It later turned out to be a hoax call.

In the present case, the flight, operated by Russian airline Azur Air, was scheduled to land at the Dabolim airport in South Goa at 4.15 am.

“The flight was diverted to Uzbekistan after an email was received by the office of the Dabolim airport director, which said that a bomb was planted on the plane. The flight was diverted before it entered the Indian airspace.

It landed at an airport in Uzbekistan around 4.30 am,” the Goa police said.

The Russian Embassy in Delhi said, “The Embassy is closely following the situation around the Azur Air flight AZV2463 en route from Perm to Goa. It made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan after a report of an alleged bomb scare. The aircraft is being inspected, the airline is preparing accommodation of the passengers in hotels.”