Air India flight makes emergency landing in Thailand’s Phuket after bomb threat
All passengers were escorted from the New Delhi-bound flight AI 379 after it landed back at Phuket airport
An Air India flight from Phuket in Thailand to India’s capital New Delhi received an on-board bomb threat on Friday and made an emergency landing on the island, airport authorities said.
All 156 passengers on flight AI 379 were escorted safely from the plane. No suspicious devices were found and there was no disruption to airport operations, authorities said.
The aircraft took off from Phuket airport bound for the Indian capital at 9.30am (local time) on Friday, but made a wide loop around the Andaman Sea and landed back on the southern Thai island, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.
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The incident occurred after a message with a bomb threat was found in one of the plane’s lavatories after takeoff, Phuket Airport general manager Monchai Tanode told a press conference.
“Police took suspects for questioning but could not clearly say who wrote the note,” he said.
Air India official Debasish Choudhury said there were initially three suspects and all had been cleared. India’s airlines and its airports were inundated with hoax bomb threats last year, with close to 1,000 hoax calls and messages received in the first 10 months, nearly 10 times that of 2023.