VASCO: The bomb scare on Moscow-Goa chartered flight on Monday night turned out to be hoax call and the Azur Air flight landed at the Dabolim International Airport with 244 passengers onboard on Tuesday afternoon.
The aircraft had made an emergency landing at Jamnagar Airport in Gujarat on Monday night after Goa airport traffic controller received an email claiming that there was bomb planted on the flight. All the 244 passengers including eight crew members on board were deboarded at Jamnagar and the flight was thoroughly checked for any suspicious item on board. However, nothing suspicious was found in the flight and it took off from Jamnagar and landed safely at Dabolim, after 15 hours delay.
After arriving at the Dabolim airport, Russian passengers thanked the government authorities for their quick action in ensuring their safety and good service to them.
One of the passengers said that initially no one on the flight was aware of the bomb threat and they realised it a few hours prior to making emergency landing at Jamnagar Airport.
According to the passenger, there was initial panic with the message as things settled down and that they were sure that it could be a hoax call. He said that the government authorities were quick to respond and acted on all safety measures to ensure everything was ok after they were safely disembarked at Jamnagar airport and taken to a lounge.
Another passenger said, “The Indian people are great and took good care of us as we were already worked up. They made us feel comfortable and gave us food and water every hour and this is a very good gesture. The only issue was we were not allowed to move in and around the airport and while it may not have been very comfortable it is ok because finally we were safe and steps were taken on for our safety.”
