Daijiworld Media Network – Phuket
Phuket, Jun 13: A day after the tragic crash of an Air India Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, another Air India flight faced a mid-air scare on Friday as a bomb threat forced it to make an emergency landing in Phuket, Thailand.
Flight AI 379, carrying 156 passengers from Phuket to New Delhi, took off at 9:30 am local time but soon looped over the Andaman Sea and returned to the island following the bomb alert. Authorities at Phuket Airport confirmed that all passengers were safely evacuated as per emergency protocols.
“Emergency plans were activated immediately, and all passengers were escorted off the aircraft without incident,” an official from Airports of Thailand (AOT) said.
The nature of the threat has not been disclosed yet, and Air India has not issued any statement as of this report.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the aircraft circling before returning to Phuket, raising concerns among the aviation community, especially in the wake of the devastating crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday that claimed over 240 lives.
India has witnessed a worrying surge in hoax bomb threats over the past year, with authorities reporting close to 1,000 fake alerts in the first ten months of 2024 — nearly ten times the previous year's figures.
Investigations are underway, and security has been heightened at Indian airports amid rising aviation threats.