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…
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 19-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?
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