New Delhi, November 30: A Hyderabad-bound Indigo flight received a bomb threat at the IGI airport here on Sunday night forcing authorities to ground the aircraft and evacuate the passengers.
A man, who is suspected to have made the hoax call at the IndiGo call centre late Sunday claiming that there was ammunition in the plane, was arrested in the early hours on Monday, police said.
The Hyderabad-bound IndiGo flight, which was carrying 164 passengers, was grounded and a security drill was carried out amid security threat at the Delhi airport.
It is suspected that the call was made in a bid to delay the flight by a few hours, a CISF official said.
The 164 passengers on board the plane, including five crew members, were safely evacuated and the aircraft was moved to the isolation bay.
Meanwhile, a man, identified as 20-year-old Mubarak, has been arrested from Bhagirath Vihar area in East Delhi in this connection, DCP (IGI, Airport) K C Trivedi said.
Mubarak is the relative of one of the three passengers, identified as Ruzwan Malik, who reported late for the flight, a CISF official said.
The arrest came after the CISF personnel provided the Delhi police with the number of the PCO in Yamuna Vihar from which Mubarak had allegedly called the Indigo call centre, claiming there were explosives and weapons on board the plane.
“We received a call at our call centre informing us of a security threat on our flight 6E 307 DEL-HYD departing at 2055. All 164 passengers are safe,” said a spokesperson of the airline.
—Agencies