Bhubaneswar: Authorities of the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) were on the toes today after a message of bomb threat to a Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar flight circulated on social media. The threat call was later found to be hoax.

The bomb defusing squad along with sniffer dogs were put into action at the airport. High alert was sounded, and the CISF Commandos and bomb defusing squad were rushed to the Bhubaneswar airport. The flight and passengers were searched.

Director of BPIA, Prasanna Pradhan said the bomb threat call was received for the Bhubaneswar-bound Air Akasa flight. Steps were taken as per the protocols of the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) and the threat call was found to be hoax, he informed.

Pradhan added an FIR has been lodged at the Airport Police Station. Someone might have sent the threat message knowingly, he stated.

The bomb threat call was received on the social media website 'X'.

The Jharsuguda-Bengaluru flight (6E-128) also received bomb threat call in mid-air. The flight reached the airport at 12:35 PM and was scheduled to take off at 1:10 PM. Due to frisking of the flight and passengers, the flight take-off was delayed.

However, the authorities of the Jharsuguda Airport did not reveal the reason behind delay in the take-off. The threat message was found to be a hoax. 

A total of 85 flights including 20 Air India flights and 20 Vistara flights across the country received the bomb threat message on social media platform X.