Mumbai airport on edge after Interpol alert

MUMBAI: Mumbai airport was put on high alert on Monday night following an Interpol input about a bomb on board a flight to Kuala Lumpur. Security agencies combed three aircraft for suspicious objects even as over 400 passengers and 500 pieces of check-in bags were put through a thorough security check.

Given the rising instances of terror attacks on airports worldwide, the call had CISF security personnel, Mumbai police and the airport operator on edge even as departures of two Malaysia Airlines flight and one Malindo Air flight we re delayed by four to five hours.

“CBI had an intelligence input through Interpol about a bomb on board a flight bound for Kuala Lumpur,“ said O P Singh, director-general, CISF.“I ordered a proper drill, a thorough security check of all flights bound for Kuala Lumpur,“ Singh said. “We monitored all three flights till the time they landed safely,“ he added.

A Sahar police officer said that around 9.50pm, the airport control room also received an anonymous VoIP (voice over internet protocol) call.The caller, too, spoke about a bomb onboard a flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) call.

Security agencies zoomed in on all three KL bound flights -the 11.15pm Malindo Air flight OD-216 with 140 passengers on board; the 11.25pm Malaysia Airline flight MH-195 with 158 passengers and the 2am MH-187 with 145 passengers.

A cop said, “Passengers who had boarded were informed asked to deplane to under go a security check again.“

Taking serious note of the call, top police officials such as additional commissioner of police (western) Chhering Dorje, DCP (Zone VIII) Virendra Mishra, too, rushed to the spot and stayed put till the flights took off.

The security search began at around 10pm on Monday and went till 6.23am on Tuesday.

“An FIR is not registered because the caller did not threaten any terror strike. Instead the caller alerted about an explosive on board,“ said the officer. A Malaysia Airline spokesperson said the matter was given “the utmost importance and security arrangement in place was 100%“.