How a single word in ballpoint pen grounded a Pune-Amritsar IndiGo flight for 8 hours

Senior Inspector Govind Jadhav of the airport police station confirmed the incident and noted that the case bore an unsettling resemblance to a similar episode from the previous week. “The word ‘bomb’ was written by a ballpoint pen on an internal wall of the aircraft. All passengers were deboarded, and the aircraft was thoroughly checked, but nothing suspicious was found,” he said.

The flight, originally due to land in Amritsar by 7.15 am, was eventually cleared to depart nearly eight hours behind schedule, taking off at around 1.05 pm.

Jadhav added that they face a significant challenge in identifying the culprit because there are no surveillance cameras on board aircraft. “This is the second such incident in the past week. The investigation is ongoing, but the person responsible has not yet been identified. We have sent samples to handwriting experts and are also looking at frequent flyers and others who may have been involved,” he said.

A source from the airline confirmed that all standard operating procedures were followed after the bomb alert was received. “Nothing suspicious was found on board. Passengers were kept informed throughout the disruption and were looked after,” the source said. An airport official later filed a formal complaint at the airport police station.

The incident is part of a growing pattern of bomb-related hoaxes targeting the Pune airport. Since 2024, airlines operating out of Lohegaon have received at least eight email-based bomb threats, none of which were found to be actual threats after security checks.

Authorities are now examining the possibility of a repeat offender and have not ruled out coordinating with airline databases to cross-reference passenger travel patterns across both incidents.