Bomb Threat Grounds Singapore Airlines Flight

A Singapore Airlines aircraft received a bomb threat on Tuesday, following which it had to remain on the ground for hours in South Africa. The plane was checked thoroughly by security forces before it was cleared to depart. All passengers and crew are reported to be safe.

The flight

Singapore Airlines flight SQ478 is a scheduled daily service between Singapore and Cape Town in South Africa, with a stopover in Johannesburg. The airline deploys one of its Airbus A350 airplanes on the route, with a departure time of 01:30.

The flight to Johannesburg takes over ten hours, where it has a scheduled halt for an hour before it departs for Cape Town at 07:10 local time. The plane on Tuesday left Singapore 20 minutes behind schedule at 01:50 for what seemed to be a routine flight. But things got tricky later in Johannesburg.

Bomb threat

As the aircraft flew towards Johannesburg, Singapore Airlines received a call alerting it to a bomb onboard. O. R. Tambo International Airport went on high alert, with the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) confirming that emergency services were activated, along with fire and rescue and the South Africa Police Service.

Acsa also said that police with K-9 went inside the aircraft but did not find a bomb. The Straits Times quotes a Singapore Airlines spokesperson as saying,

“All 58 passengers and 15 crew disembarked the aircraft safely, and supplementary security checks were conducted. SIA also assisted the authorities with their investigations.”

After the aircraft was declared safe for operations, it left for Cape Town at 12:42 local time, more than five hours behind its scheduled departure time.

Not the first time

This isn’t the first time that Singapore Airlines has faced a bomb threat. In September 2022, an SIA flight from San Francisco International (SFO) to Changi Airport (SIN) had a disruptive passenger, a 37-year-old male, who assaulted a flight attendant and claimed that his hand luggage contained a bomb, after which the crew restrained him.

The flight continued towards its destination, and its arrival into the city-state took place under the escort of two F-16C/D fighter jets from the Republic of Singapore Air Force. The aircraft had to taxi to a remote stand for security checks undertaken by the Singapore Army. The threat was found to be a hoax, and the passenger was arrested and eventually received a four-week sentence for assault, though charges related to the bomb threat were withdrawn.

In 2019, a man claimed that there was a bomb aboard a Singapore Airlines flight from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai. Singapore’s authorities scrambled two fighter jets from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) to escort the plane to Changi Airport. The accused was later jailed for two years in 2021.

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Source: The Straits Times

• 

  Singapore Airlines

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  SQ/SIA

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Singapore Changi Airport

  Year Founded:

  1972

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Goh Choon Phong

  Country:

  Singapore