IndiGo airlines employee arrested for hoax bomb threat

Poorly performing employee wanted to teach his employers 'a lesson'

IndiGo passenger plane

An IndiGo employee has been arrested for allegedly making a hoax bomb threat involving a Mumbai-bound flight, police have confirmed.

Kartik Madhav Bhat, 23, wanted to “teach a lesson” to the India-based budget airline after being reprimanded for his poor performance on the job.

A call warning of a bomb was received at the IndiGo Airlines Office at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on 2 May, according to the Deccan Chronicle.

Investigations were conducted in response to the threat, with a number of Mumbai-bound flights being thoroughly checked before the call was declared a hoax.

During interrogation, it transpired that Baht, a customer service officer based at Pune airport, had been warned about his performance at work. Bhat was given verbal notice to improve within three months or face departmental action, said Sanjay Bhatia, deputy commissioner of police (Airport)

As a consequence of the feedback, Bhat became depressed and made the call in a moment of frustration, said Bhatia.

Police identified Bhat based on the number from which he made the call and arrested him. The SIM card used for making the hoax call has been recovered from the suspect’s possession, police confirmed.

The airline has admitted to being “unfair” to its passengers in the past and has encouraged flight personnel to “tone down” and de-escalate challenging situations on-board, the Economic Times of India reported today.

The internal email written by IndiGo’s fleet supervisor, Karuna Singh, stated that each employee “is empowered and trained to de-escalate the situation” and that their first action was to “defuse the situation”.

This follows a film released last month of a passenger who had raised concern about mosquitos inside an IndiGo aircraft. Staff responded by removing him from the flight by his collar.