Telephone alert grounds Mumbai-Dubai flight
A passenger flight from Mumbai to Dubai was halted minutes before take-off yesterday when airline staff received a telephone call claiming there were "terrorists" on board, authorities said.
The plane was grounded after the anonymous caller alleged that two passengers were members of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Mumbai International Airport spokesman said.
The Emirates aircraft, which had 356 people on board, was taken to an isolated bay where passengers disembarked and security personnel detained two people for questioning.
"The flight was on the taxi-way when the call came through which said that there were LeT suspects on board," the spokesman told AFP.
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