‘Bomb’ scribbled on tissue paper found on Air India plane at Delhi airport

NEW DELHI — A tissue paper, with the word ‘bomb’ written on it, was found in the Air India flight AI819 lavatory at Delhi airport, prompting security agencies to conduct an inspection but it turned out to be a hoax, a police official said.

Sharing the details, police said that on Wednesday at around 7.30 p.m., information was received regarding a tissue paper found in the lavatory of an Air India flight scheduled to depart for Vadodara, with the word “bomb” written on it.

“Following standard security protocols, a thorough inspection was conducted, and no suspicious items were found,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Air India said that following the security alert all passengers were safely deboarded, and the aircraft was taken to a remote bay for mandatory checks by security agencies.

“Our colleagues on the ground made sure to minimise the inconvenience caused to our guests by this unexpected disruption. Air India is committed to and accords top priority to the safety and security of its passengers and crew. Passengers have been flown to Vadodara in a special flight this morning,” it said.

This comes after several hospitals in Delhi, along with the Indira Gandhi International Airport, were targeted with bomb threat emails on Sunday, alleging the presence of explosives on their premises. However, subsequent investigations by Delhi Police revealed the threats to be false alarms.

A fortnight ago over 150 schools across Delhi-NCR received hoax threat emails, prompting widespread police response.