Bomb threat at Karipur airport

Surveillance enhanced

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A thorough search was conducted at the airport

Threat did not affect flight movement

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MALAPPURAM: A bomb threat from an unidentified caller kept security personnel at the Calicut International Airport, Karipur, on tenterhooks for several hours on Thursday. A thorough search, after tightening passenger frisking, found the threat to be a hoax.

An assistant at the Air-India office at the airport got a call at 9.20 a.m. saying that the caller had overheard four people discussing the planting of a bomb at the airport. The man, however, refused to identify himself.

The airport’s bomb threat assessment committee (BTAC) was soon convened with airport director in-charge Chinson V.S. Panakkal chairing it. The meeting, attended among others by Central Industrial Security Force Deputy Commandant N. Perumallu, senior airline officials and police officers, found that the threat was ‘non-specific’ and resorted to measures specified by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

After filling up the bomb threat assessment form, the bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) was called in from Malappuram, followed by the police dog squad. A thorough search was conducted at the airport.

Passenger baggage was subjected to stringent screening. The surveillance at the airport was enhanced following the threat.

Airport officials said the threat did not affect any flight movement. No flight was delayed as most passengers had already completed check-in when the threat call came.