Air India has launched a probe after after a suspicious item was found in a Boeing 747 aircraft on arrival in Jeddah on Friday evening.
It was found by the airline's cabin crew after the Boeing plane landed in Jeddah on Friday evening and the incident raises a question mark over the airline and airport security procedures.
The item in question turned out to be a plastic wrapper of a stun grenade, a top AI official said.
He suggested that the stun grenade was used by security agencies while carrying out mock drills in the plane while explaining the security lapse.
Stun grenade are non explosive devices and used to disorient targets.
The aircraft had flown from Mumbai and halted in Hyderabad enroute to Jeddah. The aircraft was kept on stand by for a day in Delhi when Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed for the US and returned to Mumbai on September 26.
"As per International Civil Aviation Security Organisation (ICAO) guidelines a security and engineering check has to be carried out by an airline before each departure from base. A security check is also carried during a transit halt. If indeed the object is a stun grenade how did it get into the aircraft,'' said an aviation security expert.
While passenger frisking and cabin baggage check is responsibility of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), it is airline's responsibility to guard the aircraft before departure.
In its statement the airline said "Air India flight AI965 of 3rd October 2014 operated on the sector Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah. On landing at Jeddah, cabin crew found a suspicious object and informed the concerned authorities. After screening the aircraft and the object which was found to be a plastic wrapper the Jeddah airport security cleared the aircraft for further operations thereafter."
The airline added a committee comprising of its joint managing director and joint commissioner of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Civil Aviation has been formed to investigate the incident. Air India would like to clear that at no point of time was the safety of the passengers or the aircraft comprised, the airline added.
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