Matters that are dealt with extremely seriously: US on bomb threat to Air India flight

Washington: The United States on Tuesday said any kind of threats against commercial aviation are inappropriate as several Air India flights, including those headed to Chicago and New York, received threat of a bomb in the planes.

The New Delhi-Chicago flight made an emergency landing at Iqaluit Airport in Canada, Mumbai-New York flight landed in New Delhi while fighter jets were deployed for the plane headed towards Singapore.

For the past several months, a group of American and Canadian citizens, primarily from separatist Sikh groups, have been openly calling for blowing up Air India flights.

“Any kind of threats against commercial aviation are inappropriate and matters that are dealt with extremely seriously by our own law enforcement agencies. I would refer to those law enforcement agencies to speak about …I think it's a matter for law enforcement agencies, predominantly the Department of Justice, to speak to as, a first instance,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference.

In a statement, Air India said the other local airlines have been subject to a number of threats in recent days.

“Though all have subsequently been found to be hoaxes, as a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously,” it said.

Air India said it is extending all cooperation to the authorities in identifying the perpetrators of such threats to ensure they are held accountable for the disruption and inconvenience caused to the passengers and will consider legal action against those responsible to recover damages incurred by the airline.