A Turkish Airlines Flight TK-65 from Bangkok made an emergency landing in New Delhi after a written bomb threat was found in a toilet on the Airbus A330 passenger jet carrying 134 passengers, the airline and Indian security sources said.
“Passengers have been asked to evacuate the plane, the drill is taking place right now,” Hemendra Singh, spokesman for the federal Central Industrial Security Forces said.Turkish Airlines was targeted with a series of hoax bomb warnings in April and again over the weekend. This threat was found about three hours into the flight, a spokeswoman for the airline said.
Indian security forces said they were scouring the plane for signs of explosives. The flight will resume its journey to Istanbul if is given the all clear, the airline spokeswoman said. The airliner was over the city of Nagpur when the pilot sent a message requesting an emergency landing and he was given permission to change course to Delhi, said Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for Delhi police. The plane was being inspected in an isolated area of the airport, Bhagat said.
Joint interrogation teams of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) will interrogate all passengers as well as crew members. The Home Minister and Home Secretary are conducting a high level meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs which is also being attended by the Director of IB. The sources said the hijack angle is also being probed.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said , “We are prepared and all the necessary arrangements have been made. All the passengers have been offloaded.”
All the passengers are reported to be safe.