Five special teams set up to probe bomb on plane incident

BANGALORE: The Bangalore police on Sunday constituted five special teams to investigate the placing of a country-made bomb on the cargo deck of Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram Kingfisher flight, which the authorities managed to detect and defuse.

We have formed five special teams to probe the incident and one team will be sent to Thiruvananthapuram, Deputy Commissioner of police (North-East Division) Basavaraj Malagatti said.

Malagatti said police were probing whether the ball-shaped bomb, wrapped in a newspaper, found its way into the aircraft at Thiruvananthapuram as the flight reached here Saturday evening from there.

The flight left for Thiruvananthapuram from here at 6.25 AM Sunday.

Meanwhile, the police were questioning the ground staff and loading staff of the Airline and scanning through video footage of loading section for clues.

Police have been baffled at the major security lapse at the Bengaluru International Airport, which is guarded by CISF. The incident occurred when central agencies have been constantly putting this IT hub on terror alert.

The screening of baggage and cargo materials was the responsibility of the respective Airlines, security officials at the airport here, who described the incident as a major security lapse, said.

Kingfisher Airlines said in a statement soon after the incident that all the 27 passengers in the flight were safe.