Woman and child allegedly held back for questioning after bomb scare on SIA flight from Mumbai

Yet another bomb threat has derailed the schedule of a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight — this time involving flight SQ423 from Mumbai to Singapore.

While SIA isn’t able to provide further details, the airline confirmed that there was a bomb threat concerning the flight that operated from Mumbai to Singapore today. The plane had left the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport last night on time at 11:36 pm, but arrived this morning at Changi Airport 31 minutes late at 8:01am, according to FlightAware.

According to Twitter user @MTBees, planes trailing behind SQ423 had been diverted away when the SIA plane landed at Changi Airport.

@FlightEmergency SQ423 squawked on landing, all planes behind now diverted away. Any ideas? pic.twitter.com/pFc1fecQDN

— Mads TeeBee (@MTBees) March 26, 2019

According to The Straits Times, the pilot had raised a bomb threat alert mid-air — which was later found to be a hoax. Republic of Singapore Air Force jets had to be scrambled to escort the plane safely back to Changi Airport, where a woman and a child were held back for police questioning. The rest of the passengers disembarked safely after undergoing security screening.

Apparently, a call had been made after the plane left Mumbai, with the caller stating that there was a bomb on the aircraft. It’s unclear if the detained woman and child have any association with the call.

In response to media queries, SIA mentioned that it is currently assisting the authorities with investigations and are unable to provide more information.

It would be yet another bomb scare to affect an SIA flight. Last September saw passengers stranded at Mumbai Airport for over eight hours thanks to a threatening call about a bomb on an SIA aircraft, which was later declared to be a hoax. In February last year, a Singapore-bound SIA flight from Taiwan landed half an hour later than scheduled because of a bomb hoax call made in Taipei. In 2015, an SIA flight from San Francisco was held on the tarmac for a while in Changi Airport after a bomb threat was made.