SQ mid-air bomb hoax: Mumbai-Singapore flight escorted safely to Changi, woman and child questioned

SQ mid-air bomb hoax: Mumbai-Singapore flight escorted safely to Changi, woman and child questioned
A Singapore Airlines plane at Changi Airport. SQ Flight 423 was escorted safely back to Changi Airport by Singapore's air force and touched down at about 8am.
PHOTO: The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - A Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight from Mumbai landed safely at Changi Airport on Tuesday (March 26) morning, after the pilot raised a bomb threat alert.

The Straits Times understands that the threat turned out to be a hoax.

SQ Flight 423 was escorted safely back to Changi Airport by Singapore's air force and touched down at about 8am.

All passengers, except for a woman and a child, disembarked safely and had to undergo security screening before they could leave.

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The woman and the child were held back for questioning by the police, who are investigating the incident.

Preliminary checks showed that the airline had received a call after the plane left Mumbai's airport on Monday at about 11.35pm local time. The caller claimed that there was a bomb on the plane.

An SIA spokesman told ST: "Singapore Airlines confirms there was a bomb threat concerning SQ423 operating from Mumbai to Singapore... We are assisting the authorities with their investigations and regret that we are unable to provide further details."

The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft had 263 passengers on board.

The last such incident involving a Singapore carrier occurred in April 2018 on a Hat Yai-bound Scoot flight.

A passenger, who was unhappy about being told that he had to check in his carry-on bag, joked that he had a bomb in the bag.

The plane made a U-turn, with fighter jets from the Republic of Singapore Air Force scrambled to escort it back.

In October the same year, the passenger, Hsu Chun Meng, was fined $4,500 for breaching the Protection from Harassment Act by using threatening words to cause alarm.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.

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