Ammunition cartridge found in a seat pocket Air India's Dubai-Delhi flight amid bomb threats

An Air India flight from Dubai made an emergency landing in Delhi after an ammunition cartridge was discovered in a seat pocket. All passengers disembarked safely, and Air India filed a report with airport police. This incident follows a series of recent hoax bomb threats affecting airlines in India.

In a major security breach, an ammunition cartridge was found in the pocket of an Air India flight on October 27, forcing the pilot to land the flight immediately at Delhi airport. According to a statement issued by the airline on Saturday, the flight departed Dubai and touched down at Delhi Airport.

Confirming the incident, a spokesperson for the airline said, “One ammunition cartridge was found in the pocket of a seat of our flight AI916 after it had landed from Dubai at Delhi on 27 October 2024 and all passengers had safely disembarked."

The airline stated that all of the passengers had safely exited after that. "A complaint was lodged with the Airport Police by Air India strictly adhering to the laid down security protocols," said Air India. However, the airline did not elaborate on the event.

This comes amid a spate of hoax bomb threats to several flights, airports and other establishments across the country over the past few days. In the last two weeks, more than 510 domestic and international flights received bomb threats that later turned out to be hoaxes, causing major operational and financial distress for the airlines.

This propelled the government to hold an emergency meeting in the third week of October. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said that law enforcement agencies are actively pursuing all cases of bomb threats against airlines and the government is closely monitoring the situation. 

Naidu presided over a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

A social media post on October 30 that claimed a bomb had been planted on an Air India aircraft from Delhi to Mumbai via Indore was subsequently shown to be a fake. A case was later filed in this regard against an unnamed individual by the Indore police in Madhya Pradesh.