IndiGo Flight Diverted to Ahmedabad After Mid-Air Bomb Threat, Landed Safely

An IndiGo Airbus A320neo operating flight 6E 058 from Medina, Saudi Arabia to Hyderabad, Telangana was suddenly thrown into emergency protocol on Wednesday when the airline received an explicit bomb threat via email mid-flight. The aircraft, carrying 180 passengers of various nationalities and six crew members, was immediately diverted to the nearest suitable airfield, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, where it executed a safe but urgent landing at approximately 12:30 PM local time.

Upon touchdown, the captain declared a full emergency, triggering the highest-level response from airport authorities. The aircraft was directed to a remote bay far from the terminal, and all runways were temporarily cleared. Passengers and crew were swiftly deboarded through emergency slides and staircases before being moved to a secure holding area while bomb detection and disposal squads, canine units, and robotic scanners took over the isolated plane.

Zone 4 Deputy Commissioner of Police Atul Bansal confirmed that the threat originated from an email sent directly to IndiGo’s security operations centre, explicitly stating that an explosive device had been planted onboard. Faced with no possibility of verifying the claim in-flight and with Hyderabad still hundreds of kilometres away, the commander elected Ahmedabad as the safest and fastest diversion point, a decision fully endorsed by air traffic control and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation crisis cell.

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A multi-agency team comprising Ahmedabad Police, Central Industrial Security Force, National Security Guard specialists, and National Disaster Response Force personnel established a tight cordon around the aircraft. Every piece of hand baggage, checked luggage, and cargo pallet was manually screened and passed through advanced explosive trace detectors. After several hours of meticulous searching, authorities announced that no explosive device or suspicious object had been located, strongly indicating the threat was a hoax.

This latest incident compounds the ongoing crisis facing Indian aviation, with multiple carriers reporting an alarming spike in bomb hoaxes over the past weeks, leading to mass diversions, delays, and cancellations. Security agencies have now launched a coordinated probe to trace the origin of the email, while passengers from the diverted flight are being accommodated on relief flights to complete their journey to Hyderabad later tonight.

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