Crude explosive found on Kingfisher flight

Insider involvement suspected in planting of bomb on plane

Insider involvement suspected in planting of bomb on plane

The presence of explosives on a Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuramu00a0Kingfisher flight yesterday underlined afresh the sorry state of security in the country's aviation sector.

The police suspect that an insider could have placed the explosive weighing 50-gram found wrapped in a newspaper inside an unclaimed bag.

Routine check

"Forensic Science Lab officials found some sulphur in the package with two wicks fixed to it but no detonators attached to trigger the blast," an official said.

Security agencies investigating the case are considering whether the bomb was merely placed in order to embarrass the airline.

Staff questioned

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-East) Basavaraj Malagatti who is heading the investigations told MiD DAY, "We are questioning members of the ground staff, who areu00a0 responsible for loading and unloading.

We want to ascertain how the parcel had been sneaked in, despite several rounds of checks."

However, the police are not ruling out the possibility thatu00a0 the bomb could be part of au00a0 'test run' being carried out by anti-national groups.

Terror scare

They suspect that it could be an attempt to terrorise the public and players participating in the ongoing IPL cricket tournament.

IPL players are, incidentally being ferried by the Kingfisher airlines this season. Pakash Mirpuri, vice president, corporate communication, Kingfisher Airlines, said, "Shortly after Kingfisher Airlines flight IT 4731 landed in Thiruvananthapuram and all the 27 passengers de-planed, an unclaimed package was found during a routine security check.

The matter was immediately reported to the authorities, who removed the package from the aircraft."

Sources in the security staff at the airport disagreed with theu00a0 Kingfisher management's 'insider job' theory.

They have demanded a probe into the matter.

27
The number of passengers that were on Kingfisher flight IT 4731 yesterday

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