NEW DELHI, AUG 17: The Air-India plane, which was searched thoroughly following a hoax call in the wee hours today about a bomb on it, took off for Mumbai from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after nearly three hours of delay.The AI flight from Dubai to Mumbai via New Delhi was forced to off-load all the 158 people on board, following the call.The bomb disposal squad assisted by other security agencies and sniffer dogs, searched the plane for several hours before declaring it fit for take-off at 4.00 am.The plane, which had landed at the Delhi airport at 0:25 am, finally took off for Mumbai at 4:00 am.Airport sources said a Delhi-based national daily got an anonymous call on Wednesday night that a bomb had been planted on the Air-India AI-554 flight.The anonymous call came while the plane was airborne forcing the authorities to declare a state of emergency at the airport with all precautionary measures in place.Soon after the plane made a safe landing, it was asked to taxi at the bay from where the people onboard were offloaded.The hoax call came a day after similar bomb threats were received for Air India's New York-Mumbai (AI-112) and Mumbai-New York (AI-111) flights, delaying their take off from Delhi and Mumbai for several hours.While the hoax call for the for AI-112 was received by a private television network, the call for AI-111 was received by the airport manager.
