Abrupt landing comes a day after flight from Mumbai to New York was diverted to Delhi after a false bomb threat
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.
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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.
In the 80’s, Sikh separatists actually bombed an India Air flight (and tried to bomb more) going from Montreal to London (and then onwards to Delhi and Mumbai). It was in the 80’s when the separatist movement was actually active. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182
I mean, I have no idea if a bomb threat to an India Air flight over Northern Canada is Hindu nationalists fucking with Canada or Sikh nationalists fucking with India. But there’s a history of fucking with civil aviation. You probably want it on your bingo card.
Given the current context, I genuinely doubt this was done by Sikh separatists. They, if anything, would be friendly to Canada at this point, given they’re holding the Indian government’s feet to the fire over their assassinations. I’m much more suspicious that this was done by Hindu nationalists.