Air India flight which returned to Mumbai over bomb hoax leaves for New York

Mumbai: A New York-bound Air India flight, which had returned to Mumbai following a bomb threat, left for its destination on Tuesday morning, an official said.

The flight took off with all 303 passengers, but with a fresh set of operating crew due to the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitation) issue, an Air India spokesperson said.

The JFK-bound Air India flight of March 9, which was diverted back to Mumbai due to a bomb threat, departed for its destination at 5 am on Tuesday, the spokesperson said.

Earlier, the flight returned to Mumbai on Monday morning after being airborne for nearly nine hours as a passenger spotted a note with the message 'There is a bomb in the flight' written on it inside one of the lavatories and alerted the crew, officials earlier said.

Nothing suspicious was found after the Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft was thoroughly checked by security agencies, and it was rescheduled to operate at 5 am on Tuesday, they said.

Police on Monday evening registered an FIR against an unidentified person in connection with the incident, an official said.

According to the official, the aircraft was flying over Azerbaijan in central Asia at around 6 am on Monday when the threat message was discovered.

When attempts to make an emergency landing at the Azerbaijan airport were unsuccessful, the aircraft captain contacted Mumbai airport authorities to arrange the return, said the police officer.

The airline earlier said all passengers had been offered hotel accommodation, meals, and other assistance until the rescheduling of the flight.

Last month, an American Airlines flight from New York to Delhi was diverted to Rome due to a suspected bomb threat.

As per data provided to the Rajya Sabha by the civil aviation ministry on Monday, at least 15 flights of various airlines have received hoax bomb threats this year, taking the total tally of such threats to 833 since 2020.