Hijack threat note found on Air India Kolkata-Mumbai flight

A hijack threat note found in the lavatory of an Air India flight bound for Mumbai set off a security alert at Kolkata airport on Wednesday morning (11 November). The plane, Air India flight AI 2772, was moved to an isolation bay and the passengers who had boarded were taken off. A search of the aircraft found nothing suspicious until 1.30 pm, officials told Hindustan Times.

“At 1037 hrs today, a hijack note was found by the cabin crew inside the lavatory of Air India flight AI 2772 (A320, registration VT-TNH), operating on the Kolkata (CCU) – Mumbai (BOM) sector,” Kolkata airport said in a statement. “Necessary checks are currently underway by the concerned agencies as per established protocols.” The flight had been scheduled to leave at 10.20 am.

Kolkata airport director Vikram Singh said the note threatened that the plane would be hijacked at 11.10 am. All 105 passengers who had boarded were taken off the aircraft, he said, and security protocols were activated at once. Reports differ on the note itself: PTI said it was written on tissue paper, while an airport police officer who did not want to be named told Hindustan Times that the alert was written on a toilet mirror, “possibly with lipstick”.

The officer said security, fire and bomb squad personnel searched the airport as a matter of routine. An airport official said that in such cases passengers are questioned about their movements before and after boarding and asked to describe anything suspicious, and passengers' luggage was also checked. Air India had not issued a statement in the reports available at the time of writing, and no one had been identified as the author of the note.