In a major security scare, a dummy stun-grenade was found on board an Air India jumbo jet as it landed at Jeddah in the wee hours of Saturday. Air India attempted to downplay it, but its bluff was called off by Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju who termed the “unacceptable” incident as a “failure”.
Air India suspended its two officials in-charge of security in Mumbai and Hyderabad as the Minister intervened, while a joint team of the airlines and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security rushed to Mumbai to investigate the incident and fix responsibility.PTI quoted sources saying the plane was not the one kept as a standby for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US, and that it had been operating on the Delhi-Frankfurt route during this period.
Soon after the incident came to light, Air India initially issued a Press release stating "after screening the aircraft, the object which was found, turned out to be a plastic wrapper, the Jeddah airport security cleared the aircraft for further operations."
Raju, however, countered this maintaining that a stun grenade, which had no explosive in it, was found on the upper deck business class of the Boeing 747-400, that was operating flight AI-965 on Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah route.
"The grenade may have remained after the mock drill .... It has BSF markings," Raju told reporters at Vizianagaram. The security drill was carried out by the National Security Guards (NSG) between September 24-27 at select airports and aircrafts across the country to check the alertness of the crew and others concerned.
Terming the incident as "unacceptable", he said though there was no threat to passengers, "there is some failure and this lapse may not be condoned. Corrective measures have to be taken".
According to news agencies, a joint team of Air India and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security was rushed to Mumbai on Saturday morning which was investigating the incident and questioning those concerned in order to fix responsibility.Just before landing in Jeddah, the agency report quoting sources said that a box, wrapped in plastic, rolled out from beneath one of the business class seats. The cabin crew saw it and immediately informed the pilot who informed the Jeddah air traffic control.
On landing, the pilots were asked to take the plane to a remote bay where the security personnel took out the grenade and found it not having any explosive, the sources said.The grenade carried markings like 'Anti-Riot Stun Grenade' and produced at the BSF's Tekanpur-based Tear Smoke Unit, with officials suspecting that it could have been left behind after the security drill carried out last month.
As an aircraft passes through various checks and cleaning prior to be airborne in which different sections of staff are involved, they are also responsible for seeing that such items are not there on board, the sources said.They said the entire issue was being thoroughly probed and responsibilities would be fixed after the enquiry.