Jet passenger confesses he kept note threatening hijack and bombing in flight toilet

The threat note, which was recovered from one of the toilets of a Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight today forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport, was actually planted by one of the passengers on board.

Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight (9W339), carrying 115 passengers and 7 crew members on board, was forced to was diverted to the Ahmedabad airport after the note warned of hijack and explosives in the cargo.

Top aviation security sources have said that during preliminary investigation, it was found that one of the passengers on seat 1A had used the toilet prior to the discovery of the note. During sustained questioning, the passenger - identified as Sallu Birje - confessed to having placed the note there. It was found that the passenger deliberately used Urdu language and phrase such as "Allah is great" to make his warning seem like a terror threat.

Sources say that the passenger confessed during the interrogation that he was extremely unhappy with the operations of Jet Airways and he wanted to "destabilise the airline's operations" . It also emerged that he was involved in a serious altercation with the flight staff in another Jet Airways flight sometime ago.

Security agencies have taken a serious note of the incident and the passenger, after being arrested, is likely to face serious charges.

"His conduct construes serious breach of aviation laws. Apart from causing a loss of lakhs of rupees to the airline and aviation matrix, his note caused serious disruption in aviation service", said an official.

ACCUSED ARRESTED, MAY BE PUT ON NO-FLY LIST: MINISTER

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted that the accused Birje had been identified and arrested. He is in for more trouble. Raju said, "I will recommend that his name be put on the no-fly list". The civil aviation ministry had recently created rules for the no-fly list to discourage unruly passengers from disrupting flights and aviation services. If the committee that scrutinises cases accepts the no-fly recommendation, this passenger may lose the right to buy a flight ticket anywhere in India for any destination for a specific period of time.

The threat note recovered from the plane's toilet.

Earlier in the day following the recovery of the threat note, a senior aviation official had said, "Jet flight 9W 339 BOM-DEL had departed at 0255 hours and after being diverted to AMD, landed at 0350 hrs as the PILOT IN COMMAND was informed by the crew that a threatening note was found in the toilet."

The note stated, "9W 339 is covered by hijackers and the aircraft should not land in Delhi but instead be flown straight to PoK. 12 ppl on board. If you land, you will hear the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. The cargo area contains bombs and will blast if you land in DEL." The note ended with the message "Allah is great".

Immediately on the ground, a statutory body called the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee was set up at 0425 after a serious alert was sounded.

The note is said to have been found by one of the flight attendants when the aircraft was mid-air. The pilot was alerted, who subsequently assessed the threat following which a hijack distress drill was initiated. The aircraft was asked to immediately land at the Ahmedabad airport where all emergency systems were put in place. Once the aircraft made a safe landing, it was directed to a remote bay for checks.

All passengers were deplaned and taken to an enclosure. A thorough check revealed that there was no suspicious device.

The aviation security and intelligence officials then started questioning the passengers and crew members.

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