Bomb hoax delays THAI flight to India
A bomb threat on a Thai Airways plane at Suvarnabhumi International Airport caused a five hour delay Wednesday but after an intense search officials found no explosive on the aircraft.
Sunathee Isvarphornchai, Thai Airways International's Vice President for Corporate Communication Relations, said she was told that a bomb had been planted on flight TG 521 bound for Dubai via the south Indian city of Chennai and was about to leave Bangkok at 10.55am yesterday. A female passenger - later identified as Padmapriya Natarajan, 29, from India - told airline staff just before boarding that she had received a bomb threat on her mobile phone. A female voice had allegedly asked if she knew Bin Laden and told her that a bomb had been planted on the TG 521 plane, according to Sunathee. Thai Airways officials along with police and bomb squad officers spent nearly three hours searching the aircraft, passenger luggage and cargo but found nothing unusual, she said. However, the airline decided to fly the 270 passengers and 18 crew members to the scheduled destination on another aircraft, which departed at 3.30pm, while Natarajan was held for further questioning. Immigration Police deputy superintendent Lt Col Phakkapong Saiubol said Natarajan had both Indian and Canadian nationalities and presented her Canadian passport to immigration police at the airport. Police suspected Natarajan had either madeup the bomb threat or had received the phone call from friends who wanted to tease her, as the call was made to her personal phone number. At press time, police were still questioning Natarajan at the Samut Prakan's Rajathewa police station. If the investigation discovers she has lied, the police could place her on a national securityrelated charge, said Lt Col Phakkapong, but if no wrongdoing was found, she would be allowed to continue her journey to Dubai on the next flight. The Nation
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