A 59-year-old man, who was denied boarding on his Hyderabad-Chennai flight for turning up late at the airport in Hyderabad on Monday, allegedly made a hoax call to the police saying there was a bomb on the plane, officials said. Police in Hyderabad said the Police Control Room received a call at about 10.30 am stating that there is a bomb in the flight (No. 6E-6151) and it needed to be stopped immediately. This resulted in the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) to assemble and inquire into the call, police said.

Upon enquiry, it was revealed that the passenger, who arrived late to the airport, allegedly resorted to the hoax call about a bomb on the plane. Police said the man arrived at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to catch his Indigo flight to Chennai. As he came late to the airport, the airline employee denied his boarding, they said.

The passenger argued with the employee and asked him for permission to board the flight, they said. However, the Indigo employee informed his officials and told the passenger that it was not possible for them to let him to board the flight.

Following this, the passenger threatened to stop the flight and called the Police Control Room and informed that there was a bomb in the flight, police said. By then, the flight took off. Following the bomb threat call, authorities at the airport in Chennai went into a tizzy, but a thorough check of the flight upon landing at the airport proved it was a hoax call.

A senior official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) said the Indigo flight with 183 passengers was isolated and thoroughly checked but no suspicious item onboard was found. The belongings of the passengers were also thoroughly checked.

The fake bomb threat call caused inconvenience to many passengers, police said. The Indigo Airline officials reported the incident to police, who apprehended the caller (passenger) and he was later let off with a notice issued to him, a police official said, adding they have initiated action against the passenger as per law.