When 'Operation Badla' hoax tweet forced emergency landing of Jet Airways plane

New Delhi, July 9: A Dubai-bound Jet Airways flight from Mumbai with 61 passengers and crew made an emergency landing at Muscat airport following a tweet about presence of a bomb onboard, but was cleared for onward travel after it turned out to be hoax, second such incident in last two days.

Flight No 9W 536 landed under emergency conditions in the Omani capital safely at 2.50 pm IST and was taken to the isolation bay for passengers and crew to disembark.

Omani security agencies scanned the aircraft, passengers and baggage and, after a thorough search, the plane was cleared for take-off, a Jet Airways official said. He said the flight will take off for onward journey anytime now.

The tweet--"Bomb spotted on Jet Airways 9W 536 from Mumbai to Dubai departure at 1225 from CSIA (Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport)-- triggered the scare after it was noticed by a Jet Airways staff, who informed Mumbai ATC about it.

The message was relayed to Muscat ATC at 1.55 pm following which the plane was diverted to the airport in the Omani capital.

The tweet was said to have originated from the twitter handle of one Surendra Pratap. Indian security agencies, including Mumbai police's cyber cell, have launched a probe. Reportedly, the tweet 'operation badla'was made from handle @SurendraPratap.

This was the second time in last two days that a plane had to be diverted to another airport due to an alleged bomb threat.

On Tuesday, a Turkish Airlines plane had to make an emergency landing at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport following a similar scare but no explosive was found onboard.

"Jet Airways flight 9W 536, which departed from Mumbai at 1246 hrs for Dubai, was diverted to Muscat due to a bomb threat.

The aircraft with 54 guests and 7 crew on board landed safely in Muscat at 1320 hrs local time (1450 hrs India)," Jet Airways said in a statement earlier in the day. All guests and crew disembarked without any incident and were taken to the airport terminal, the airline said.

PTI