Diffused grenade recovered from stand-by 'Air India One'

According to reports, a defused grenade was found by Air India crew on late Friday night on the business class of an Air India jumbo aircraft Boeing 747-400 flying to Jeddah.

It has been learnt that the bomb was found on board AI-965 flight which was operating the Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah, media quoted Air India officials as saying.

The incident sparked a panic among the country’s top security agencies since this is the very aircraft that has been kept as emergency stand-by for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent concluded five day US-trip.

According to Air India sources, the Boeing 747 was an emergency standby aircraft intended for use by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in case his regular aircraft developed any last minute snags.

Media reported that, the aircraft was kept in ‘complete readiness’ at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, and released on Friday for commercial operations after Modi's return to India from the US on Thursday night.

After release from standby VVIP duty, it was operated as a scheduled domestic-cum-international sector Delhi-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah route, when the suspicious object was discovered from the flight, which later turned out to be a grenade.

On landing at Jeddah, in the early hours of Saturday (India time), security agencies there found a defused grenade inside the business class of the aircraft.

The incident was reported to the local security agencies who took over the aircraft, sources said.

The aircraft has been cleared and released by Jeddah airport security and brought back to India, where Indian security personnel were investigating the matter.

"A suspicious object was found on board this aircraft. The investigations are on," an Air India Spokesperson told media on Saturday.