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Ludhiana man’s bomb tweet grounds Jet Airways flight headed to Muscat
A message scrawled in lipstick on an aircraft’s toilet mirror and now a Twitter prank has led to two emergency landings in the past three days.
A message scrawled in lipstick on an aircraft’s toilet mirror and now a Twitter prank has led to two emergency landings in the past three days.
“Bomb spotted in #JetAirways flight 9W-536 from Mumbai to Dubai dep at 12.35 from CSIA…#Operationbadla,” read the tweet that forced the plane with 61 people on board to divert to Muscat on Thursday.
Investigating agencies alerted the Ludhiana police after tracing the Twitter account to Surinder Partap, apparently a city resident.
Ludhiana additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, crime) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar confirmed that the police had initiated an investigation and the technical staff cell had been brought in to trace the accused.
In previous posts, Surinder had tweeted that he was involved in the Vyapam scam.
A Jet Airways spokesperson said: “Jet Airways flight 9W 536, which departed from Mumbai for Dubai, was diverted to Muscat due to a bomb threat. The aircraft with 54 guests and seven crew members landed safely in Muscat at 2.50pm. All guests and crew disembarked without incident and were taken to the airport terminal. Omani security agencies carried out a search of the aircraft, baggage and cargo.”
After the threat turned out to be a hoax, the flight took off at 9.15pm. On Tuesday, a Turkish Airlines plane flying from Bangkok to Istanbul was diverted to Delhi’s IGI airport after a crew member spotted a ‘bomb in cargo’ message scribbled with lipstick on an economy-class washroom mirror.
