Kochi: Two flights departing from Kochi received false bomb threats on Tuesday. The threats targeted an Air India flight to London Gatwick (AI 149) and an IndiGo flight to Bengaluru-Lucknow (6E 196).
The Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) convened twice to investigate the incidents and concluded the alerts were hoaxes. The threatening messages reached the airlines' 'X' (formerly Twitter) accounts hours after both flights had departed.
The Air India threat arrived at 3.04 pm, while the flight had already left at 12.06 pm. The IndiGo threat was received at 4.04 pm, shortly after its departure at 12.13 pm. It reached Bengaluru at 1.01 pm before proceeding to Lucknow at 1.52 pm, arriving at 4.19 pm.
A similar bomb threat was reported at Nedumbassery Airport the previous day, which also turned out to be a hoax. In the past six days, authorities have received over a hundred bomb threats at various airports across the country, raising significant concerns.