An Air India plane bound for Chicago has made an abrupt landing in the Arctic city of Iqaluit, after a false bomb threat. The emergency stop before sunrise on Tuesday, came less than a day after Canada and India expelled senior diplomats in a widening feud between the two countries.
The flight’s 211 crew and passengers disembarked at the Iqaluit airport some 300km (186 miles) north of the Arctic circle, the Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a news release. According to local media in Iqaluit, an “unspecified bomb threat from a person in India to Air India” was relayed to the flight’s captain.
In a statement posted on X, the carrier said: “The aircraft and the passengers are being re-screened as per the laid down security protocols. Air India has activated agencies at the airport to assist the passengers until such time that their journey can resume.”
Tensions between Canada and India have remained high ever since the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, accused Delhi of assassinating the prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia last year.
But India’s flagship carrier said it and other airlines had been subject to “a number of threats” in recent days. On Monday, an Air India flight from Mumbai to New York was diverted to Delhi after a false bomb threat. The country’s low-cost carrier IndiGo reported threats made against two flights that were bound for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Muscat in Oman.
Nearly a year ago, Canadian officials and the Royal Canadian Mounted police investigated alleged “threats” against Air India after a prominent separatist leader warned Sikhs against flying with the airline on 19 November. The US-based activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun called for a boycott of India’s flagship carrier.
At the time, Canada’s transport minister said the government took threats to aviation “extremely seriously”, adding that officials were “investigating recent threats circulating online”.
Threats to Air India flights from Canada are likely to revive memories of the 1985 Air India bombing, which was orchestrated by Sikh extremists. Three hundred and twenty-nine people died when Air India flight 182 from Montreal exploded off the coast of Ireland. It was due to stop over at London Heathrow before going on to Delhi and eventually Mumbai.
The victims included 280 Canadians and 86 children, and the attack is still the worst act of mass murder in Canadian history. A second bomb targeting another plane killed two baggage handlers after it detonated at Tokyo’s Narita airport before it was loaded on to an Air India plane.
In the years that followed, Canadian officials received significant criticism for ignoring or downplaying threats.
Canada’s RCMP is expected to provide more details about the threat later on Tuesday.