Defused grenade found on aircraft kept as standby for prime minister
6 Oct 2014 5:03 AM IST
The grenade was found by the Air India crew on board the Boeing 747-400 which was operating the Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah flight, airline sources said on Saturday. On landing at Jeddah, the incident was reported to the local security agencies who took over the aircraft, the sources said.
The aircraft had been kept as a standby for the recent US visit of Modi. The prime minister had undertaken a five-day visit to the US from 25 September. ‘A suspicious object was found on board this aircraft (on Friday). The investigations are on,’ an Air India Spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the controversy took a curious turn on Saturday after civil aviation minister Gajapathi Raju, contradicting Air India’s statement that it was a plastic wrapper, said the object found on the place was a stun grenade.
‘The grenade may have remained after the mock drill ... It has BSF markings,’ Raju told reporters at Vizianagaram. Terming the incident as ‘unacceptable’, he said though there was no threat to passengers, ‘there is some failure and this lapse may not be condoned. Corrective measures have to be taken.’
Following the incident, Air India has suspended the security managers of Mumbai and Hyderabad.
A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade or flashbang, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy’s senses especially in hostage-rescue operations. A stun grenade produces a blinding flash of light and intensely loud ‘bang’ of greater than 170 decibels without causing permanent injury.
The aircraft had been kept as a standby for the recent US visit of Modi. The prime minister had undertaken a five-day visit to the US from 25 September. ‘A suspicious object was found on board this aircraft (on Friday). The investigations are on,’ an Air India Spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the controversy took a curious turn on Saturday after civil aviation minister Gajapathi Raju, contradicting Air India’s statement that it was a plastic wrapper, said the object found on the place was a stun grenade.
‘The grenade may have remained after the mock drill ... It has BSF markings,’ Raju told reporters at Vizianagaram. Terming the incident as ‘unacceptable’, he said though there was no threat to passengers, ‘there is some failure and this lapse may not be condoned. Corrective measures have to be taken.’
Following the incident, Air India has suspended the security managers of Mumbai and Hyderabad.
A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade or flashbang, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy’s senses especially in hostage-rescue operations. A stun grenade produces a blinding flash of light and intensely loud ‘bang’ of greater than 170 decibels without causing permanent injury.
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