Kolkata, June 28: A passing remark by a passenger led to a bomb scare at the Kolkata airport on Friday, delaying a flight to Pune by a few hours, an official said. The incident happened around 12 pm when the check-in process was on for the Kolkata to Pune via Bhubaneswar flight of a private airline, he said.
A passenger displeased with security personnel thoroughly checking his bag had remarked, "Is there a bomb in there?", an Airports Authority of India (AAI) spokesperson said. This led to the scare, following which the security personnel carried out a thorough search across all passenger baggage and the aircraft after emptying it as some passengers had already boarded, he said. Vistara Flight From Thiruvananthapuram to Mumbai Receives Bomb Threat; Lands Safely at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
After going through all necessary security protocols nothing was found, he added. The passenger's remark was the root of what happened, the spokesperson said, noting that the aircraft finally took off for its destination at 5.30 pm. The Kolkata airport had received two hoax bomb threats in April.