Panic gripped New Delhi's airport on Tuesday after an unidentified caller claimed that a Kanpur-bound Indian aircraft with 42 passengers on board will be hijacked, local news agency Press Trust of India reported.
However, the hijack threat turned out to be a hoax after about three hours of intense security checks. The Delhi-Kanpur plane finally took off at around 2:30 p.m. (GMT 0700), after about three hours of high drama witnessed after the security establishment initiated anti-hijack and anti-sabotage measures, the report said.
The airport was put on high alert soon after Kanpur police informed Airport Traffic Control (ATC) at the Delhi airport that they had received an anonymous call about a hijack threat.
The unidentified caller also claimed that bombs had been placed in the plane, they said.
The take-off attempt of the aircraft was immediately aborted and all passengers were de-boarded, they said, adding a thorough search of the plane was conducted.
"Nothing suspicious was found. And finally the plane was cleared for proceeding to Kanpur in the afternoon," a senior airport official said.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Society (BCAS) Monday issued a general alert to all airports in north India and security was beefed up in all the facilities.
The alert came in the wake of intelligence inputs about a possible strike by terrorist organizations like Lashker-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami within a fortnight, the report said.
Source: Xinhua
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