Summary
- A SpiceJet passenger made a bomb threat to retrieve a lost wallet, causing disruption in operations.
- He was eventually arrested, and the entire thing was found to be a hoax.
- This shouldn’t be the primary time airlines have faced bomb threats, and so they almost at all times grow to be false.
Every every now and then, airlines and airports are faced with bomb or security-related threats. Thankfully, they almost at all times grow to be false but cause minor disruption in operations, nevertheless. However it’s hardly ever that we hear of passengers threatening an airline in this way simply to get a lost belonging back. And yet, that’s exactly what happened with SpiceJet recently.
Passenger loses wallet on a plane
On December 26, a passenger named Shreyansh Chamaria flew from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) to Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) on SpiceJet flight SG 8536.
The uneventful flight took off at 06:47 and reached Bengaluru after two hours and 19 minutes. But after deboarding the plane, Chamaria realized he was missing his wallet. Suspecting that he will need to have left it onboard the Boeing 737 he just flew in, he called the SpiceJet customer care service to get it back.
Photo: BoeingMan777 | Shutterstock
On another day, a passenger would simply wait to listen to back from the airline about their missing item, but that wasn’t the case on December 26. As an alternative, an easy lost-and-found query become a bomb threat investigation.
Bomb story
In line with The Latest Indian Express, after Chamaria called SpiceJet to tell them about his missing wallet, he wasn’t sure if the airline was taking his request seriously. To make them fast-track the method, he claimed that his wallet contained a bomb. The report quotes a police source as saying,
When the shopper care executive asked Chamaria the bomb’s location, he said,
It’s bizarre that somebody at the moment can claim to plant a bomb in an airplane after which return to the airline to get it back and expect to walk off scot-free. But that’s precisely what happened.
Photo: Rawisyah Aditya | Shutterstock
The airport police were alerted immediately, and so they formed a Special Bomb Detection Assessment Committee. The crew eventually managed to search out the wallet, and upon inspecting it and assessing the situation, the entire thing was declared a hoax.
The passenger was eventually arrested by the airport police near the SpiceJet counter. A First Information Report (FIR) was booked against him for public mischief and criminal intimidation by anonymous communication.
Not the primary time
In fact, this isn’t the primary time an airline has faced a bomb threat, and positively not in India. In October, an Akasa Air flight from Pune to Delhi needed to be diverted to Mumbai after a passenger claimed he was carrying a bomb in his bag. The bags was checked upon landing, and nothing was found.
Photo: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock
In August, a passenger on a Jet2 flight from East Midlands Airport to Antalya led to a big delay and prompted authorities to go looking the whole plane when he claimed that he was in possession of a bomb. Thankfully, no such explosives were found onboard, however the flight was delayed by around three hours.
Passenger Arrested At Miami International Airport For False Bomb Threat
The gate agent simply asked Martins to ascertain his carry-on bag before things took a sour turn.
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