Bomb hoax at two airports

Bhubaneswar: The authorities of Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar and Veer Surendra Sai Airport at Jharsuguda received threats about the presence of bombs on two different flights but those later turned out to be a hoax, airport officials said.

A threat about the presence of bombs on an Akasa Air flight in Bhubaneswar airport was received on social media, but it later turned out to be a hoax, an official of the airport said on Thursday. Security was beefed up at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here after the incident, he said.

“We have received a hoax threat on ‘X’ that bombs have been fixed on an Akasa Air flight. Following standard operating procedure (SOP), we have cleared the flight and it departed for its destination,” BPIA Director Prasanna Pradhan said. Security has been tightened at the airport, he added.

Similarly, the authorities of Veer Surendra Sai Airport in Jharsuguda got information about the presence of bombs on a Bengaluru-Jharsuguda Indigo flight.

“After getting information about this, we followed the procedure and declared it as a hoax call,” Jharsuguda Airport Director Sandeep Kumar Tiwari told reporters. The flight departed after conducting necessary examinations, he said.