Delhi Police file FIR after bomb threat forces emergency landing of US flight
The American Airlines aircraft travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted to Rome on Sunday.
The Delhi Police on Monday registered a case a day after an American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was forced to make an emergency landing in Rome following a bomb threat, The New Indian Express reported.
The threat was received through an email on Sunday, the newspaper quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani as saying.
The aircraft was diverted to the Italian capital in line with the security protocol.
The first information report was registered based on a complaint filed by the airline, the police said.
The case has been filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to false information and criminal intimidation by anonymous communication, and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act.
There were 199 passengers and 15 crew members on board the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. While over the Caspian Sea, the aircraft reversed and made the emergency landing at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci International Airport at about 5.15 pm (local time) on Sunday, data from FlightRadar24 showed.
Fighter jets were scrambled to escort the aircraft as part of the safety protocol when the plane approached the Italian airspace.
Italian security forces carried out a security sweep of the aircraft, after which the plane was allowed to resume its journey.
The replacement flight is scheduled to depart for Delhi on Tuesday. The original replacement flight on Monday was cancelled. In the meantime, the passengers were provided accommodation in local hotels and airport lounges.
In October, hundreds of flights operated by Indian carriers received bomb threats, all of which turned out to be hoaxes. Most of the threats were issued through social media. Several flights were diverted or delayed as a result.
More than a dozen FIRs were registered by the police in Mumbai and Delhi about the hoaxes.
In late October, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Kinjarapu Naidu said that the Union government was considering legislative action to include persons found guilty of making hoax threats to flights on the no-fly list.
