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A total of 139 passengers on board an Indigo flight from Kochi to Bengaluru were deboarded at the international airport in Kochi on Monday after receiving a call regarding the presence of a bomb in the aircraft.
The flight -- 6E6482 -- was scheduled to depart for Bengaluru at 10.30 am, CIAL said in a statement.
However, as the aircraft was getting ready for departure, a bomb threat call was received at the airport's CISF control room specifically about the Bengaluru bound flight, the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) said.
"Subsequently the aircraft was shifted to the isolation parking bay. All 139 passengers -- including an infant -- were offloaded and shifted to the security hold area," it said.
As per protocol, a bomb threat assessment committee chaired by the Airport Director was convened and interventions as per established procedure involving CISF Quick Response Team (QRT), bomb squad, State Police, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) and airport security were carried out, the statement said.
At the same time, rescreening of the baggage was also carried out and the entire exercise was completed by 1 pm, it said and added that nothing suspicious was found in the baggage.
Indigo in a statement said that a hoax bomb threat was received today regarding its Kochi-Bengaluru flight and as per protocol, the aircraft was taken to a remote bay for search by the security agencies at the Kochi airport.
"After thorough checks and investigation, the aircraft was cleared for takeoff. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers," it said.
The flight departed for Bengaluru at 2.24 pm.
The police, meanwhile, registered a case and have started an investigation to trace the origin of the internet call through which the threat was made.