Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SR)
Bengaluru, Apr 24: Passengers on Scoot Airlines flight from Bengaluru were stranded in the airport for hours overnight, after a security threat was falsely reported because of a ‘guitar’ that looked (to some) like a ‘gun’.
The Singapore-bound Scoot flight, TR573, was supposed to depart Bengaluru at 1.20 am local time on April 23 Tuesday, was hesitantly rescheduled to take off about 14 hours later at 3.3 0 pm, and threw travel plans of more than 100 flyers.
Passengers, including families with young children and those with connecting flights in Singapore, said that they were left with little information for hours.
As per Bangalore Mirror report a passenger said, “I was heading to Bali via Singapore. When we were about take-off, we heard an unusual announcement from the flight captain saying that the flight was returning to the parking bay as it needed refueling. We were confused about this announcement. However, we were made to sit in the flight for more than two hours. By 3.30 am or so, we were told that our baggage will be re-scanned and our hand baggage will be re-checked. The buses had arrived by then. We were asked to get into the bus and we reached the terminal. We were assured by the airline staff that the flight would take off in some time, but we were instead issued a second boarding pass. And our wait continued till Tuesday afternoon.”
In response to queries, a Scoot spokesman said that a passenger had to be removed from the flight by airport security because of a verbal security threat. No suspicious items were found after the remaining passengers went through security screening and immigration clearance again, the spokesman added.
However, the additional security procedures meant that the flight time limits of the operating crew had been exceeded. Scoot said that it would arrange for a replacement flight from Singapore, which would be operated by a new set of crew, to transport affected passengers back.
The replacement flight, TR573D, was then scheduled to depart Bengaluru at 3.30 pm local time on Tuesday (6 pm Singapore time).