Birju Salla, a wealthy businessman from Gujarat, finds himself on a no-fly list after his alleged hoax bomb and hijacking hoax forced a Jet Airways flight to make an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport on Monday.
Birju allegedly left a note in the aircraft’s washroom of the plane that threatened a fatal explosion unless passengers were flown to Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Birju-- who allegedly has created a ruckus in a flight over a cockroach allegedly found in his food -- was detained for “disturbing the peace” in the Mumbai-Delhi flight.
While it’s not clear what Birju’s intention was, this isn’t the first time a flight in India has been diverted, delayed or held up because of a strange reason. Some of them more bizarre than others. Here’s a look:
Navy officer wanted to de-board midway
An Indian Navy officer was detained in August in Jodhpur after he claimed he was carrying a bomb on board an Air India flight from Delhi to Jaipur. The scare turned out to be a hoax and the officer allegedly made the claim after the airline crew denied him permission to deboard at Jodhpur because his ticket was booked for Jaipur.
“The officer had a tiff with the airline staff when the flight touched down at Jodhpur. He told them he wanted to deboard and threatened he was carrying a bomb when the crew stopped him from disembarking. The passenger has been handed over to local police,” said a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officer.
{{/usCountry}}“The officer had a tiff with the airline staff when the flight touched down at Jodhpur. He told them he wanted to deboard and threatened he was carrying a bomb when the crew stopped him from disembarking. The passenger has been handed over to local police,” said a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officer.
{{/usCountry}}The passenger, however, denied making any bomb claim.
Late for own engagement, couple has a plan
In February, a couple allegedly hatched a plan in Bengaluru to delay their Kochi-bound flight because they feared they would not make it in time for their engagement, according to a report in The Hindu.
Arjun and Swapna called the airline six times and realised there was little they could do after their cab turned up late, police said. They reportedly asked their relatives in Kerala to make the hoax bomb call to the Kempegowda International Airport.
As per protocol, authorities cordoned off the plane, de-boarded the passengers and scanned all luggage.
MPs create ruckus
TDP MP Diwakar Reddy allegedly created ruckus and pushed an airline staffer in June after he was denied boarding by IndiGo for being late -- prompting a temporary flying ban by the budget carrier and other airlines.
Earlier this year, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad was temporarily banned by airlines from flying after he assaulted an Air India staffer, triggering a major controversy. Not one to give up, the parliamentarian tried in vain to circumvent the ban on flying by booking flights to Delhi with different honorifics and spellings of his name.
Teen doesn’t want girlfriend to go on trip
In 2006, a16-year-old boy who was denied permission to go on school trip tipped off authorities that one of his classmates was carrying a bomb.
The caller, Saneel Shah, a student of Jamnabai Narsee School (JNS), did not want his girlfriend to go for the UN-sponsored trip to Milan without him. The flight was permitted to leave after 3 hours but the JNS students and their teacher were grounded.
Married man wants to dodge girlfriend
In April, a 32-year-old man was arrested near Hyderabad for a hoax email about a possible hijack of flights, apparently cooking up the story to dodge his girlfriend’s demand for a holiday in Mumbai and Goa.
Police said Motaparthi Vamsi Krishna was married and had two children. But he was having an extramarital affair with a woman in Chennai. “He was to trying to avoid his girlfriend who was pestering him to take her to Mumbai and Goa for a holiday,” a police officer said.
He created a fake flight booking in her name on April 16 from Chennai to Mumbai, and sent the air ticket a day before. Since he would be exposed if she tried to board the flight with the fake ticket, Vamsi went to an internet centre at Madhuranagar on April 15 and sent a mail to Mumbai police through a fake email, ununn0801@gmail.com.