Vistara Airlines emergency landing in Turkey over bomb scare

There were 247 passengers and crew members on board. During the flight, a flight attendant found a bomb warning in the lavatory; someone had written "bomb on board" on a piece of toilet paper. An alarm was announced, and the plane was immediately diverted to the airport in Erzurum, eastern Turkey.

"The safety of our passengers, crew, and aircraft remains our highest priority," said a spokesperson for the Indian carrier.

Upon landing, passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane. Turkish services, including bomb disposal units with sniffer dogs, began searching the aircraft under security protocol.

The authorities also decided to close the airspace over the city. Landings and departures at Erzurum airport were halted.

The Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, announced late Friday evening that so far the services have not yet found anything that could be a bomb or pose a threat. The police are trying to determine who wrote and left the message about the dangerous package on board in the lavatory.

"Around midnight, we completed all search and control operations. As a result of the actions taken, we concluded that the bomb threat was unfounded," said Erzurum Province Governor Mustafa Ciftci to reporters at the airport.

Ciftci also informed that after the inspection, all precautionary measures, including the suspension of landings and take-offs at Erzurum airport, were lifted.

"A new plane will arrive from India on Saturday morning local time to take passengers to Frankfurt," the governor added.

The media reminds that in the last few months many Indian carriers have received false bomb threats.