A bomb threat grounded an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Goa on October 19, prompting the evacuation of 176 passengers and six crew members at Chennai airport while bomb disposal experts and security personnel searched the aircraft and baggage.
The flight was scheduled to depart from Chennai’s domestic airport at 5.40 pm. Passengers had arrived about an hour before departure and boarded the aircraft after completing the usual security checks.
As the aircraft was preparing to leave, the airport control room received information claiming that a bomb had been planted on the Goa-bound flight and would explode shortly. The aircraft was denied permission to take off and brought back to the parking bay, according to the report by DT Next.
Security personnel moved into the area with sniffer dogs and evacuated everyone from the aircraft. The passengers and crew were taken to a safe area as bomb detection and disposal squads began examining the plane and the luggage.
All baggage, including hand luggage, was unloaded from the aircraft for inspection. Passengers were also checked, and their belongings were examined individually by security teams. The search continued for nearly three hours with the assistance of sniffer dogs.
No explosives had been found at the time of the report, while 48 pieces of baggage were still being examined. Bomb disposal personnel, airport security staff and sniffer dog teams continued their checks as the incident disrupted activity in the departure area.
The incident placed Chennai airport’s aviation-security procedures at the centre of the response. The aircraft was prevented from taking off immediately after the threat was received, and the evacuation and baggage inspection were carried out before any further operational decision could be taken.
The report did not provide details about the origin of the threat, whether a suspect had been identified or when the flight would be cleared for departure. It also did not state whether the aircraft or passengers would be moved to another flight after the security checks were completed.
The immediate next step remained the completion of the bomb-search operation and examination of the remaining baggage by the airport’s security and bomb-disposal teams.
