Air India flight forced into emergency landing after bomb threat

AIR INDIA BOEING 787-8 VT-ANP (MSN 36287)

An Air India flight travelling from Phuket (HKT/VTSP) to New Delhi (DEL/VIDP) was forced to make an emergency landing back in Phuket just a day after the Ahmedabad air disaster due to receiving a bomb threat on Friday.

Passengers were escorted from the plane in line with emergency plans, an Airports of Thailand official said. There were 156 passengers on the flight and the bomb threat was received on board the plane, it said in a statement. The aircraft took off from Phuket airport for the Indian capital at 9.30 am on Friday but made a few wide loops around the Andaman Sea and landed back at the Thai island, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.

AOT did not provide details on the bomb threat. Air India did not give a statement on the incident immediately.

The incident came a day after an Air India flight departing for London crashed moments after take-off in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 241 people on board.
The casualties included 169 Indian, 53 British, one Canadian and seven Portuguese citizens, the airline said. Indian civil aviation faced a crisis last year after what turned out to be hoax bomb threats forced emergency landings or cancellations of a number of flights, the Independent reported.

Airlines and airports field nearly 1,000 hoax calls and messages in the first 10 months of 2024, about 10 times more than in the whole of the previous year.

Aircraft Information: 

Airline: Air India

Code: AI/AIC

Aircraft: Airbus A320-251N

Registration: VT-TQA

Serial Number: 10327

Engines: 2 x CFMI LEAP-1A26

First Flew: 27/10/2020

Age: 4.6 Years