Monday, Jan 26, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | New Delhi
By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
NEW DELHI, JAN. 25. The nervousness of the security agencies at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on the even of Republic Day turned into a full-scale nightmare when the security in-charge of a private airlines decided to check the preparedness off his airlines staff by making a hoax call about a bomb being planted in a Mumbai-bound flight of Jet Airways without informing any other agency. The security agencies took the threat so seriously that they even convened a Bomb Threat Association Committee and launched a thorough search for the elusive device. For two hours they searched frantically before they were informed by the concerned officer of Jet Airways that it was in fact he who had got the call made to check the alertness of the personnel. The call was made at about 6-15 p.m. and pointed to a bomb having been planted in Flight NW 312 which was to leave for Mumbai. Immediately, the security agencies went on a high state of alert and summoned their bomb disposal squads as there was nothing to suggest that it was a part of a mock drill initiated by an airlines official. According to sources, the officer, a Lieutenant Colonel, had got the call made through someone else without either informing the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Director General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India or the Central Industrial Security Force. As such on receipt of the call, the CISF alerted all the other agencies and a thorough search of the over 200-seater Boeing 320 aircraft was started. Simultaneously, the agency also began searching the airport premises for explosives. For over two hours the search continued as there was no hint of the call being a part of a supposed "mock drill''. It was only at around 8-30 p.m., that Jet Airways told the CISF that the call had been made by its official. All the concerned agencies, who were already on a high state of alert on account of Republic Day tomorrow, subsequently heaved a sigh of relief. Due to the call, the flight - originally scheduled to leave at 8-40 p.m. -- was also delayed by over an hour. A senior security official said a complaint would be lodged against the officer who made the call as he had flouted all norms and procedures by not informing the concerned agencies about it in advance.
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