Second alleged bomb threat on board Aeoroflot within four months |20 June 2023
DCP Songoire (left) and Mr Chang-Tave during the press conference (Photo: Louis Toussaint)
- Threat ended without incident and investigation is under way
An investigation is under way into an alleged bomb threat on board the Russian Aeoroflot flight to Seychelles last Saturday, June 17.
This is the second alleged bomb threat on board the flight within four months after the first one was reported on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) gave details of the recent incident at a press conference on Saturday afternoon at its headquarters, Pointe Larue. The speakers were the general manager for Airport Management, Collin Chang-Tave and the deputy Commissioner of Police, Francis Songoire.
The SCAA had received two emails in the morning informing them of the alleged bomb on board the plane coming from Moscow. The police had officially confirmed that there was no bomb.
Mr Chang-Tave stated that when the threat was made at around 8:01am, the emergency protocols were activated. By 8:22am, the emergency operations centre was opened. The other partners were also alerted and gradually met up with the relevant authorities to manage the alleged emergency. The plane in question was due to arrive at 11am and Mr Chang-Tave explained that this was enough time to make a decision.
There was a separate call to make a threat assessment based on all the available information. The airline itself was contacted and the crew on board did its own threat assessment. Based on the report that was received by 10am, the airport was satisfied that the existing risk at the time was minimum and the plane was allowed to operate. The plane landed in Seychelles around 10:59am and the normal procedures were followed whereby the passengers were allowed to disembark, without incident, and were taken care of.
After the passengers had left the plane, the police did a thorough investigation. Deputy Commissioner Songoire explained that the police were informed early enough and he personally received the call at around 8:08am. The rest of the relevant officers were then alerted to the situation. Due to the fact that the call was early, Mr Songoire explained that there was sufficient time to be able to organise. With the constant stream of updates that the police received, they were able to do an appropriate deployment. By the time the plane landed, the explosive experts and police dogs were able to clear the cargo hold, passenger cabin and the cockpit.
When the scanning was done and the assessment was over the situation was classified as okay.
“We can say that things worked out really well and we coordinated really well – SCAA, the police and all the stakeholders who were involved,” he stated.
Mr Chang-Tave explained that “we were prepared for a situation like this”. This was due to the earlier bomb threat back in February. “When it happened in February, we had less time to do all the evaluations.”
He explained that the evaluations were done by experts, independent of SCAA or the police so that there was no influence. The experts’ evaluation also included information received from the different entities they contacted including Aeroflot and head office.
The DCP also informed the media that the February case was ongoing and this one will be taken separately. Both the DCP and Mr Chang-Tave have stated that these allegations must be taken seriously until information proves otherwise.
It should be noted that Saturday’s incident did not affect Aeroflot’s schedule for the day, which proceeded as normal.
Sunny Esparon