A bomb hoax call to Air India in the wee hours of Thursday sent the airline and New Delhi IGI airport into a tizzy and resulted in a delay of a Chicago-bound flight by 11 hours. The Hyderabad-Delhi-Chicago flight — which took off from Hyderabad — landed in Delhi and was to take off for Chicago at about 2 am on Thursday.
But an hour before that, Air India received a call that a bomb had been placed on board the flight. Air India immediately alerted security agencies and full emergency measures were put in place at Delhi airport, sources said. Air India officials said the passengers who boarded in Hyderabad were asked to move from the aircraft to the Terminal-3 while the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay and searched completely. Sources in the security establishment said the call was declared as a hoax at about 7.50 am.
Air India officials said the passengers from Hyderabad were accommodated for the night at a hotel. When the bomb-call came initially, passengers from Delhi were to board the aircraft, but the process was halted. Air India officials said they then had to arrange for a fresh set of crew-members, since flight-duty time limitation restrictions meant the crew from Hyderabad could not operate the flight. Finally, the aircraft took off from Delhi at 1 pm on Thursday after a delay of 11 hours.