Agencies
Istanbul
A passenger plane flying from India to Germany was forced to make an emergency landing in eastern Turkey on Friday due to a bomb threat written on toilet paper on board, state broadcaster TRT reported.
The Vistara airline plane, heading from Mumbai to Frankfurt, landed in the eastern province of Erzurum, according to the airline. The 237 passengers and 14 crew members on board were evacuated, said Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu.
The city’s airspace was closed to air traffic and a state of emergency was declared, TRT reported, citing Erzurum Governor Mustafa Ciftci.
He said a passenger handed the cabin crew a piece of toilet paper saying “bomb on the plane.” No further information, such as the gender or age of the passenger, or the results of searches of the passengers, luggage and aircraft was initially available.
Upon landing at the Erzurum airport, passengers were evacuated from the aircraft and bomb disposal teams were dispatched to inspect the plane as per the security protocol in such cases, it is learnt.
The plane was initially due to land at two other Turkish cities, Ordu and Trabzon but was diverted to Erzurum due to ground works and air traffic, TRT noted earlier.
