Three flights at Pune Airport receive bomb threats

Of these three flights, two were departures and one was an arrival and they belonged to Indigo and Akasa Air

Continuing the trend of the past few days wherein various airlines have been threatened with dire consequences lest they let their aircraft fly, flight operations at Pune Airport all but ground to a halt on Thursday after an unknown person sent threat emails and later posted on ‘X’ threatening to blast 11 aircraft at different locations in the country out of which three were flying out of or into Pune Airport. Of these three flights, two were departures and one was an arrival and they belonged to Indigo and Akasa Air.

The threat to the flights was assessed and the procedure to file a police complaint was carried out, said officials. (HT FILE)

Santosh Dhoke, Pune Airport director, said, “There was a threat to three of the flights at Pune Airport today, one of which was an arrival and the remaining two were departures. We had already taken action against the threat as per standard protocol under the Bombay Threat Assessment Committee. Accordingly, the threat to the flights was assessed and the procedure to file a police complaint was carried out.”

“While the Akasa Air flight was a departure from Pune (to Kolkata). All these flight timings were during the day and when the Pune Airport authorities received a threat related to the flight arriving at Pune Airport from Kolkata, immediate action was taken by us. All passengers onboard were safely evacuated within five to seven minutes of landing,” Dhoke said.

Regarding the atmosphere of fear caused by constant threats to airlines, Ashok Gandhi, a businessman who flies frequently, said “I regularly travel by domestic flights for my work and since the last few days, we are worried to travel as there are continuous threats being received by the airlines.”