3 flights from Mumbai get bomb threats

Mumbai : Security agencies went into a tizzy after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats on Monday with one of them, a New York-bound Air India aircraft, getting diverted to New Delhi as travel plans of some 500 passengers went for a toss.

However, nothing suspicious was found on any of the planes after a thorough check by security agencies, police officials said. Apart from the Air India flight, two IndiGo aircraft -- one bound to Muscat (Oman) and another to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) -- also received bomb threats, as per officials.

The IndiGo flights received the threats before they took off and the planes were moved to isolation bays for security checks on Monday morning, the airline said without elaborating.

The Air India aircraft had 239 passengers and 19 crew members on board, while the two IndiGo flights had around 260 passengers, according to sources. While the IndiGo's Muscat flight departed for its destination after a delay of nearly 7 hours at around 9.15 am after receiving security clearance, the Jeddah-bound aircraft took off at 13.14 pm, 11 hours behind its scheduled departure time of 2.05 am, as per the live flight tracking website Flightradar.com.

However, the Air India flight has been rescheduled and will now depart for New York from Delhi on Tuesday morning, as per the airline. An Air India statement said, "Flight AI119 operating Mumbai to JFK (New York) on October 14 received a specific security alert and on instructions of the government's security regulatory committee it was diverted to Delhi."