Another bomb threat causes flight to declare emergency

Aeroflot Boeing 777 makes an emergency landing at Delhi following a suspected bomb threat

Bomb threats have been on the rise recently within the global aviation industry, with several airlines having to divert or conduct emergency landings on otherwise routine scheduled flights. Russian carrier Aeroflot has become the latest after a bomb threat was made against one of its flights on the 13th of October.

A possible bomb onboard

Aeroflot Flight SU 232 was a routine flight from Moscow (SVO/UUEE) to New Delhi (DEL/VIDP), and operating the flight was one of the airline's Boeing 777-300ERs registered as RA-73144. The flight departed from Moscow uneventfully, but while en route to New Delhi, the Central Industrial Security Force received an email warning about the presence of bombs onboard, which prompted the police to get the flight crew to declare an emergency landing.

Air traffic controllers cleared the aircraft, and flight SU 232 landed at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport at approximately 02:48, where the flight's 386 passengers and 14 crew members were promptly evacuated to safety. 

A police official said:
"On Thursday around 11 pm, a threat message was received at IGI Control Room social media site regarding bombs planted onboard Russian flight no SU-272 arriving at IGI Airport. The flight landed at 2.48 am safely."

Passengers, crew members, and baggage were individually checked, but nothing suspicious was found. The aircraft was also thoroughly checked, though no explosive devices were found either. To ensure the bomb threat was not a hoax, police officials grounded and isolated the aircraft for a few hours before finally releasing it. RA-73144 eventually departed from New Dehli at 17:30 and arrived back in Moscow at 20:55.

The unfortunate rise of bomb threats

As mentioned, the Aeroflot incident is the latest in a lengthening string of recent bomb threats across the global aviation industry. The most recent one also occurred on October 13th when a Jet2 Airbus A321 was operating a scheduled flight between Dalaman Airport and Manchester Airport. After a bomb threat was made, the Jet2 Flight LS 922 was escorted by the Royal Air Force and diverted to London's Stansted Airport instead.

And within the Indian aviation industry alone, there have been at least two incidents of bomb threats onboard flights in a few weeks. On September 30th, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 173 was delayed at the Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport after a fight between passengers onboard gave rise to a false bomb threat. The threat was eventually cleared, and the flight departed for Kuala Lumpur after a delay of nearly three hours, though the four involved passengers were arrested.

Aircraft Information:

Airline: Aeroflot
Code: SU/AFL
Aircraft: Boeing 777-3M0
Registration: RA-73144
Serial Number: 41690
Engines: 2 x GE GE90-115B
First Flew: 02/04/2016
Age: 7Yrs. 6Mts.

Story Sourced from here

Aeroflot Boeing 777 Makes An Emergency Landing At Delhi Following Suspected Bomb Threat (simpleflying.com)