Kolkata

A Mumbai-bound Air India flight was grounded in Kolkata on Wednesday before it could take off, after the pilot informed the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower about a hijack threat received on a paper slip. Subsequently, all passengers were de-boarded, and the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay, the sources added.

A thorough inspection of the aircraft was being carried out by the security authorities. The threat note was found in the lavatory. Following the discovery, the flight crew alerted the ATC about it. The flight was scheduled to depart at 10.20 am, an airport official said, confirming the incident.

The note said that the plane would be hijacked at 11.10 am, Vikram Singh, the director of Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, said.

Earlier, on October 23, an IndiGo flight scheduled to operate from Delhi to Chennai received a bomb threat before take-off, prompting the aircraft to return to the bay at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) in the national capital.

The threat was later declared a hoax by authorities after the airline completed the required Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).