When you board an Air India flight, you probably don’t expect that your journey will end on a Royal Canadian Air Force jet. However, that’s exactly what happened for some passengers yesterday, after their flight diverted to the northern portion of Canada…
In this post:
Chicago-bound Air India jet diverts to Iqaluit, Canada
This incident happened yesterday (Tuesday, October 15, 2024), and involves Air India flight AI127, scheduled to fly from Delhi (DEL) to Chicago (ORD). The flight was operated by a 16-year-old Boeing 777-300ER with the registration code VT-ALM. This 7,484-mile flight is a marathon journey, and ordinarily takes around 15 hours in the air. However, yesterday it even took much longer than that.
The jet departed Delhi at 3:22AM local time on Tuesday morning, just shortly after its scheduled 3AM departure. It began its long journey, flying over India, then Pakistan, then Tajikistan, then Kazakhstan, then Russia, then Arctic Norway, and then Greenland.
However, at some point during the flight, the aircraft received a bomb threat, prompting a diversion. It’s not clear exactly when the bomb threat was received, since the jet continued with its planned course, given the lack of diversion points on this routing.
After an 11hr28min journey, the aircraft ended up landing in Iqaluit, Canada (YFB), at around 5:20AM local time (still on Tuesday morning). Once there, the aircraft was searched, and passengers were screened. While it’s good that the flight was safely on the ground, as you’d expect, the logistics ended up getting much more complicated.
There are limits on how long pilots and flight attendants can work, so after several hours on the ground, the crew was no longer able to continue the journey to Chicago…
Following this initial incident, Air India released the following statement:
Flight AI127 operating from Delhi to Chicago on October 15, 2024, was the subject of a security threat posted online and, as a precautionary measure, has landed at Iqaluit Airport in Canada. The aircraft and passengers are being re-screened as per the laid down security protocol. Air India has activated agencies at the airport to assist the passengers until such time that their journey can resume.
Air India notes that it, and other local airlines, have been subject to a number of threats in recent days. Though all have subsequently been found to be hoaxes, as a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously. The inconvenience to customers is sincerely regretted.
Air India is extending all cooperation to authorities in identifying the perpetrators of such threats to ensure that they are held accountable for their disruption and inconvenience caused to passengers, and will consider legal action against those responsible to recover damages incurred by the airline.
Passengers rescued by Royal Canadian Air Force
After some number of hours, the crew was no longer able to continue the journey to Chicago, meaning that over 200 passengers were potentially going to be stranded in Iqaluit overnight. This posed major challenges, given that there wasn’t sufficient accommodation and other resources for so many unexpected visitors.
As a result, the Canadian government got involved. Specifically, the Royal Canadian Air Force sent an aircraft to rescue passengers, and get them the rest of the way to Chicago. Specifically, the jet that rescued them was a nine-year-old Airbus A330-200 with the registration code 330003. Funny enough, this is a former Kuwait Airways A330, and I reviewed that jet recently.
The aircraft first had to position from Trenton (YTR) to Iqaluit (YFB), which was a 1,403-mile flight that took 3hr7min, and it landed there at 9:20PM local time. Then it took around 2.5 hours to get everyone on their way.
The plane ended up taking off at 11:54PM local time, and after a 1,694-mile, 3hr18min flight, the aircraft landed in Chicago (ORD) at 2:11AM, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. Given that the Air India flight was initially supposed to arrive at 7:30AM on Tuesday, that represented a nearly 22-hour delay for passengers.
These fake bomb threats are such a mess
We’ve seen an increase in fake bomb threats in India in recent times, with multiple threats in recent days. I of course understand that airlines have to take all threats seriously, and the “better safe than sorry” mantra applies.
However, logically I also can’t help but find all of this to be a bit silly. If someone actually intended to blow up a plane, they almost certainly wouldn’t announce it, but rather would just do it. Meanwhile for situations where it is announced, it’s almost always a hoax. It’s my understanding that in this case it was an unverified post by a social media account that prompted the scare.
I guess airlines don’t have much of a choice when it comes to taking these threats seriously. However, on some level you can’t help but wonder, no? I mean, think of the implications of this — this diversion cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, caused a lot of extra fuel to be burned, and inconvenienced a lot of people. Heck, presumably Canadian taxpayers were largely subsidizing this rescue mission.
I guess there’s not a good alternative, but if I were a passenger and they were polling me (which would never happen), I’d be in the “let’s take our chances” camp.
Bottom line
An Air India Boeing 777 flying from Delhi to Chicago had to divert to Iqaluit, Canada, after the flight received a bomb threat. The crew of the flight then ended up timing out, meaning that over 200 people were potentially going to be stuck in this fairly remote city.
The government got involved, and realizing there was no easy way to take care of all of these passengers, the Royal Canadian Air Force sent an A330 to Iqaluit to pick up passengers, and fly them the rest of the way to Chicago.
There have been multiple airplane bomb threats in India in recent times, and these have to be taken seriously. At the same time, they’re such an unfortunate waste of time. Hopefully authorities can figure out who is behind these, and hold them responsible as much as possible.
What do you make of these airplane bomb threats, and the need for diversions?
This isn't specific to this particular incident, or Air India, but in general, when these types of threats are made (not just against aircraft), I suspect the authorities *do* go through a risk assessment. They probably know more than just "some random social media post". They might be able to trace the account and their history, or gather other information, and then make a determination of whether or not a threat is "credible".
Of course,...
This isn't specific to this particular incident, or Air India, but in general, when these types of threats are made (not just against aircraft), I suspect the authorities *do* go through a risk assessment. They probably know more than just "some random social media post". They might be able to trace the account and their history, or gather other information, and then make a determination of whether or not a threat is "credible".
Of course, sometimes they err, either being too cautious and diverting when they didn't need to, or the other way, disregarding warnings deemed non-credible that turn out to be real (e.g. "bin laden determined to strike in U.S."). It's a hard call, but rarely is it made just by information that we the public have available.
And regardless, I think that in this day and age, with people's tolerance for such risks being much lower than in the 70s/80s (when hijackings and bombings were much more commonplace and just accepted as part of the risk of flying), they probably made the right call.
In Related News: Indian High Commisioner (Ambassador) to Canada was declared a "Persona non Grata" for his involvement in Killing of a Canadian Citizen.
just wanted to remind everyone i'm here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182
Air India Flight 182 was a passenger flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Mumbai route, that on 23 June 1985, disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean as a result of an explosion from a bomb planted by Canadian Sikh terrorists.[1][2][3] It was operated using a Boeing 747-237B registered VT-EFO. The incident happened en route from Montreal to London at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 m). The remnants of the aircraft fell into the sea approximately 190...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182
Air India Flight 182 was a passenger flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Mumbai route, that on 23 June 1985, disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean as a result of an explosion from a bomb planted by Canadian Sikh terrorists.[1][2][3] It was operated using a Boeing 747-237B registered VT-EFO. The incident happened en route from Montreal to London at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 m). The remnants of the aircraft fell into the sea approximately 190 kilometres (120 miles) off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens, and 24 Indian citizens.
This plus the diplomatic drama between Canada and India amid alleged murders against Sikh separatists Canadian Citizens in Canada only Tightens security
I don't think there was a specific bomb threat for this 1985 flight. Just an environment of bomb threats against the carrier.
There was specific intelligence about the threat to that exact flight, but the Canadian government buried it. They also disposed of wiretaps against the suspects and a number of other actions which compromised the eventual prosecution. The Justice Major Commission report outlines a lot of this.
@upstater - 15th October is the death anniversary of Tailwinder Singh Parmar, one of the prime accused in that bombing. There is always a spare of increased bomb threats against Indian carriers around this date every year, mostly carried out openly by Khalistani separatists based in the US and Canada to "commemorate" their dead "martyr".
VT-ALM is a 2008 build plane, so it's 16 years old not 9 years old.
Imagine you’re some bored Eskimo drinking vodka and all of a sudden that huge plane flies over you ground shaking.
Stupid comment
Yes, it happened while waiting to read some reviews, all of a sudden this VT-CIE just came out of nowhere and ruined it.
The airline released a statement saying, there was a threat if the review didn't switch to COPA, captain Ben took the threat seriously and diverted away from Asia.
There was very little inconvenience because everyone was told to suddenly "visualise yourself flying Qsuites or Air France or JAL or something of that kind! ;)"
Just read on Singapore local news that they scrambled fighter jets to escort an Air India Express flight to Changi
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/air-india-express-bomb-threat-singapore-scrambles-fighter-jets-changi-airport-4680186?cid=internal_sharetool_androidphone_16102024_cna
There have been over a dozen bomb threats against Air India and other Indian carriers in the last 24 hours. The Mumbai to JFK flight was also diverted yesterday.
I would love to be the person on the phone taking in such a call. "Oh, a bomb, you say? How most extraordinary. Thank you so much for letting us know and have a nice day now." Then put the receiver down and forget all about it...
This threat came thru social media. So you'd just block the mean, nasty person and go back to looking at pictures of cats.
Exactly :D
See Air India 182
Seek help, Danny
Airlines are supposed to train call center staff as to how to respond to such calls. Sadly I guess many don’t nowadays and they end up in some third party centre, ironically in India with incompetent staff who have no idea. Thank you for your feedback. Could you go online to submit a request lol.
That said, wasn’t there an incident in India which was very well handled.They even caught the culprit Perhaps indigo....
Airlines are supposed to train call center staff as to how to respond to such calls. Sadly I guess many don’t nowadays and they end up in some third party centre, ironically in India with incompetent staff who have no idea. Thank you for your feedback. Could you go online to submit a request lol.
That said, wasn’t there an incident in India which was very well handled.They even caught the culprit Perhaps indigo.
Turning to the diversion, better safe that sorry though.
It seems quite silly that some people know no better than to spread hoaxes like this among the flying public. Better than this would have been the coverage of an 85-aircraft order placed from Airbus by Air India this past week. It’s very unlike OMAAT not to cover something as major as this...
Wrong login VT......
You still weeping for not getting the attention, kiddo? Go thump-chest like your PM in Indian dailies.. he will give you a candy.
The question I would ask on these diversions is whether there can be a relaxation of crew rest rules. I can easily imagine in these cases that a doctor or someone else could sign off on the crew's ability to work longer hours. This would be a good thing for the crew (perhaps a bonus from airline), the airline, and the passengers.
I totally understand your perspective. However, it is a bit like getting everyone out of the pool if there are thunderstorms in the area. The chance of a bad outcome is very low, but the result of a bad outcome is unacceptably bad. I get that the downside of getting ppl out of the pool is lower than this diversion. I would make the punishment for such fake bomb scares extraordinarily high and do my best to prevent them.
You're right. And not to dwell on the obvious, but this diversion warrants post on OMAAT. If Air India ignored the threat and something actually went bad, it would be front page news around the world.
The pool analogy is a very poor one for this case.
Pretty sure the standard procedure being to divert is a CYA sort of thing. It’s bad to waste fuel, but it would be the end of any organization that ignored a bomb threat that actually went through
"a bomb threat that actually went through"
Now that I think about it though, has there ever actually been such a case in modern times? Where someone called in a bomb threat beforehand, and then there actually turned out to be a bomb on board (whether detonated or not)?