Flight from Russia to Goa diverted to Uzbekistan after bomb threat

A chartered flight from Russia’s Perm city to Goa made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Saturday after it received a bomb threat.

Later in the day, the Russian Embassy said no dangerous substances were found on the aircraft, the Hindustan Times reported. The flight will resume its journey at 20:00 Greenwich Mean Time, or 1.30 am according to Indian Standard Time.

A threat about a bomb on board the Azur Air flight was received on the email address of the director of Goa’s Dabolim airport. “We received the threat and quickly informed the airline. The plane was yet to enter into the Indian airspace and was diverted to an airport in Uzbekistan,” the Hindustan Times quoted an unidentified official as saying.

The Dabolim airport stepped up security preparedness on account of the threat.

This was the second such incident involving the same airline this month.

On January 9, a flight from Moscow to Goa made an emergency landing in Gujarat’s Jamnagar city after a bomb threat was issued. Subsequently, security officials carried out a thorough search and found that the threat was a hoax.

The flight landed at the Dabolim airport later that day.