Bomb threat: Vistara sending substitute aircraft to fly passengers stuck at Turkish airport

Vistara on Saturday said it is dispatching an alternative aircraft along with a fresh set of crew to fly the passengers of its Mumbai-Frankfurt flight to their destination after it was diverted to Erzurum Airport in Turkey due to an alleged bomb threat on Friday.

The substitute aircraft is expected to arrive at the Turkish airport by 12.25 (local time) and depart for Frankfurt with all passengers by 14.30 hours (Local time), Vistara said in an updated statement of X (formerly Twitter).

The flight UK 27, operating on Mumbai-Frankfurt route, departed from Mumbai at 1.01 pm on Friday after a delay of an hour and was scheduled to arrive in Frankfurt (Germany) at 5.30 pm (local time).

The Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft was, however, diverted to Turkey after the airline's crew on-board found a paper note stating that there was a bomb on the aircraft, Vistara sources had said.

According to an AP report, the aircraft had 247 passengers and crew on board.

The flight landed safely at Erzurum Airport at 1905 (local time) on Friday, the airline had said.

"Since the crew have exceeded their duty time limitation, we are sending an alternate aircraft, with a fresh set of crew, to Erzurum Airport, Turkey, which is expected to arrive there by 1225 hours (local time) and depart for Frankfurt, with all customers, by 1430 hours(local time)," Vistara said in its updated statement.

It said that all the necessary checks have been conducted and the customers, along with the crew and aircraft, have been cleared by the security agencies.

In the meantime, all efforts are being made to minimize inconvenience to customers, including offering them refreshments and meals, Vistara said in the statement.

On Friday the airline had said its Flight UK27 from Mumbai to Frankfurt, "has been diverted to Turkey (Erzurum airport) due to security reasons and has landed safely at 1905 hours", without divulging the number of passengers and crew on board the aircraft.