A hoax call claiming that a Mumbai-Bangalore Jet Airways flight was to be hijacked on Monday spread panic at Mumbai airport and delayed the flight by nearly three hours.
The flight — 9W 2105 — was to depart from the Chhatrapati Shivaji airport at 4.10 p.m.
“The Jet call centre got a call around 3.30 from a caller claiming to be [one] Vikas Yadav. He demanded that Kasab [the lone surviving gunman of 26/11] be released. He said the flight would be hijacked and that the hijacker was sitting in row number 13,” an airport official told The Hindu .
Soon after the call, the Standard Operating Procedure was activated. All the passengers were detained and frisked. The aircraft was searched thoroughly. It was found that there was no row 13. The flight finally took off around 7.15 p.m.
