Air India flight makes emergency landing in Thailand due to bomb threat – day after Gatwick flight tragedy

An Air India flight was forced to make an emergency landing today after a bomb threat – less than 24 hours after the Ahmedabad air disaster. 

Flight AI 379 was travelling from Thailand’s Phuket to India’s capital New Delhi but had to suddenly land again after an explosion warning, airport authorities said.

The plane took off, circled the west coast of the island and then landed again minutes later on the holiday island.

Passengers were evacuated from the plane in line with emergency plans, an Airports of Thailand official said.

There were 156 passengers on the flight and the bomb threat was received on board the plane, it said in a statement.

It came after Air India’s service from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick crashed yesterday, killing more than 290 people.

Flight AI 379 took off from Phuket airport for the Indian capital at 9.30am local time on Friday, but made a wide loop around the Andaman Sea and landed back at the Thai island, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.

AOT did not provide details on the bomb threat. So far no bomb has been found, MailOnline understands.

Indian airlines and airports were inundated with hoax bomb threats last year, with nearly 1,000 hoax calls and messages received in the first 10 months, nearly 10 times that of 2023. 

On the ground in Ahmedabad, rescuers are scouring the wreckage for any possible survivors.

In what has been described as a miracle, Viswash Ramesh – seated in 11A by the exit – survived. His brother Ajay, in 11J, is believed to have died. 

There were 53 British nationals on board as well as 159 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese citizens and a Canadian. Eleven of those on board were children, including two newborns.

The plane’s captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, desperately cried ‘Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift’ before the aircraft went down and hit a residential property. 

Footage appears to show Captain Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar hopelessly trying to nudge up the nose of their sinking aircraft moments before the devastating impact. 

Aviation experts said the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may have suddenly lost power ‘at the most critical phase of flight’ after takeoff.

The possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike leading to a double engine stall. 

Officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau were at the scene to carry out an analysis of the wreckage and retrieve the stricken jet’s black box. 

Videos shared on social media showed the plane rapidly losing altitude – with its nose up – before it hit a building and erupted in a violent explosion.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik confirmed that one passenger somehow survived the crash. 

‘The police found one survivor in seat 11A. He has been taken to the hospital and is currently receiving treatment,’ he told news agency ANI. 

‘As for the number of casualties, it’s too early to confirm. The crash occurred in a residential area, so the death toll may rise.’

The Boeing jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport in Gujarat at around 1.40pm (0810 GMT), officials said.

Ahmedabad, the main city of India’s Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people, and the busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas.

‘When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames,’ resident Poonam Patni said.

‘Our office is near the building where the plane crashed. We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames,’ said one resident, who declined to be named. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were ‘devastating’, in a statement addressing passengers and their families ‘at this deeply distressing time’. 

The UK government said it was sending a team to support the investigation. 

Boeing said it was ‘working to gather more information’ on the incident which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner. 

A police official who told the BBC on Thursday night that all the bodies and their remains had been removed from the site of the crash. 

‘It took hours to make sense of the chaos. And it’s going to take many more hours to completely clear up the site,’ he said.