Dubai flight delayed 4hrs by hoax 'terror call'

Mumbai: An Emirates flight bound for Manchester via Dubai was delayed by four hours on Sunday morning and a couple were deplaned after a caller told the airline that a passenger on board was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative. The aircraft was approaching the runway around 10.20am when it was called back for a thorough security check.
Shahbaj Khan, a 70-year-old businessman, and his wife Munira, heading for Dubai for a wedding, were detained for interrogation and the flight left in the afternoon.
"The couple was interrogated by CISF officials, Special Branch and by us. But we could not find anything suspicious. The caller, who gave the name Suresh Chavan, had intentionally played a prank and we are going to take stern action against him," said additional commissioner of police (western region) Amitabh Gupta.
An airport source said an airline employee received a call a little after 10am.
"The aircraft had pushed back at 9.59am, but it was holding at taxiway M4 waiting for its turn to enter the runway for take-off when, at 10.20am, the commander was informed about a possible threat onboard," said a source, adding that the Boeing 777-300 with 356 passengers and crew was taken to T4, a remote parking bay, on instructions of ATC officials. The passengers were asked to deplane and taken to the terminal building's transit lounge.
The couple was identified and led away by officials.
The CISF officials then undertook a three-hour security check, which included combing the aircraft for hazardous materials, putting the remaining passengers through a pat-down inspection and manually checking each hand baggage after X-ray screening. The flight finally took off, without the couple, at 1:45pm.
07/02/10 Manju V & V Narayan/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Feb 2010, Foreign Feb 2010, Safety Feb 2010