Kolkata: Five flights operating from Kolkata fell prey to bomb-threat hoax again on Sunday. A threat was sent through an X profile but turned out to be a hoax like the five messages sent over the past eight days.
Sunday’s threat came at 12.43 pm. By 1 pm, the city airport was put on high alert.
The aircraft mentioned in one of the messages included two IndiGo flights from Kolkata flying to Pune and Bengaluru and two IndiGo carriers flying into the city from Mumbai and Bengaluru. A separate threat message was sent via X for a Vistara flight headed to Delhi from Kolkata.
Heightened security measures were enforced — anti-sabotage check was carried out by CISF and airlines carried out 100% ladder-point check before boarding. A senior airport official said all necessary SOP was followed and security screening was beefed up. However, passengers were not harassed at any point of time.
Over the past two weeks, more than 350 flights across the country have received similar bomb threats that turned out to be hoaxes, with most of these issued through social media.