A hijack threat note found in the lavatory of a Kolkata–Mumbai Air India flight forced 105 passengers to deboard and the aircraft to be moved to an isolation bay on Wednesday, before security agencies declared the threat a hoax.
The note was found by cabin crew at 10:37 a.m. on flight AI 2772, an Airbus A320neo, at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata. It warned that the aircraft would be hijacked at 11:10 a.m. The flight had been scheduled to depart at around 10:30 a.m.
The pilot alerted air traffic control before take-off, and the aircraft was moved to an isolation bay. All 105 passengers were deboarded, and the Central Industrial Security Force and airport security carried out an anti-sabotage sweep of the aircraft. No suspicious item was found.
The threat was later confirmed to be a hoax, and the flight departed at 5:38 p.m., nearly seven hours late. Police and security agencies are investigating who wrote the note, and are reviewing CCTV footage and the passenger list.
Kolkata airport director Vikram Singh confirmed the sequence of events. Air India had not issued an official statement at the time of the first reports, and the airline has not said whether it will take action against the person responsible.
It was the third such scare on an Indian aircraft in under a month. An IndiGo flight, 6E-451, returned to Bengaluru on 7 November after a similar threat, which also turned out to be a hoax, and an Air India flight from Frankfurt to Delhi was diverted to Jaipur on 14 October.
The repeated hoaxes have put airlines and airport security under strain, forcing costly delays, emergency responses and investigations each time. Aviation security officials say every threat must be treated as genuine until it is proved otherwise, whatever the disruption.
For the passengers on AI 2772, the day ended with a long wait in the terminal and a flight that arrived in Mumbai in the evening instead of the late morning. Most were rebooked or waited for the aircraft to be cleared, and the airline arranged refreshments during the delay.
The incident also raised questions about how a note could be left in an aircraft lavatory without being noticed, and about the security checks carried out before boarding. Airport officials said the investigation would look at when the note was written and by whom.
No arrests had been made by Wednesday evening. Police said they were working through the passenger manifest and the airport’s camera footage, and that the person responsible could face charges for causing a false alarm and disrupting a flight.
