A major scare unfolded mid-air as an Air India flight bound for New Delhi was forced to make an emergency return to Phuket, Thailand, following a bomb threat shortly after takeoff.
Flight AI-379 took off from Phuket International Airport at around 9:30 AM local time. However, within a short time of its departure, the aircraft received a threat indicating the possibility of a bomb on board.
Acting swiftly, the pilots turned the aircraft around while it was flying over the Andaman Sea and safely landed back at Phuket. According to airport officials quoted by Reuters, all 156 passengers were evacuated safely following the emergency landing.
Details regarding the nature of the bomb threat remain unclear, and Air India has not issued an immediate statement.
This incident comes just a day after a tragic crash involving another Air India aircraft. On Thursday, a Boeing Dreamliner operated by the airline crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, resulting in the death of over 240 people.
India has seen a significant surge in bomb threats targeting airlines and airports in recent times. In 2024 alone, there were nearly 1,000 such threats reported in the first 10 months of the year—about 10 times higher than the number reported during the same period the previous year.
Air India, formerly state-owned, was acquired by the Tata Group in 2022. In 2024, Tata merged Air India with Vistara, a joint venture it had previously launched with Singapore Airlines.