Mumbai: Five people were arrested here after a bag containing a flammable chemical caught fire before being loaded onto a Mumbai-Addis Ababa flight of Ethiopian Airlines at the Mumbai international airport, police said on Saturday.
The incident occurred on Friday morning.
Samir Narayanchandra Bishwas (31), a resident of Nadiyal in West Bengal, who was allegedly carrying the bag, was arrested along with Nandan Dinesh Yadav (26), Suresh Subba Singh (46), Vishwanath Balasubramaniam Senjundhar (37) and Akhilesh Gajraj Yadav (37), an officer from Sahar police station said.
Naveen Sharma, who is believed to be in Congo, is wanted in this case, he added.
When the luggage was being loaded onto the plane on Friday at around 10:30 a.m., smoke rose from a bag which caught fire shortly afterwards but was quickly extinguished, the police officer said.
Bishwas was arrested and questioned at the police station. He reportedly told the police that a certain Nandan Yadav had given him the bag to deliver to Naveen Sharma in Congo.
Yadav and three other people, including employees of a logistics company, were subsequently arrested.
The bag contained 10 kilograms of flammable material, half of it in liquid form and the rest in powder form, the official said, adding that the material had been sent to a forensic laboratory to determine its exact nature.
While Bishwas and others have been arrested under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, an investigation is underway to determine whether the purpose of carrying the combustible material on board the aircraft was fulfilled, he added.
Ethiopian Airlines also issued a statement on the incident.
“On the morning of August 16, a fire was observed in a baggage container containing checked baggage for ET641 (Mumbai-Addis Ababa) at Mumbai airport in the ramp area. The incident occurred on the ramp while the container was being transported from the baggage handling area to the aircraft,” it said.
“The airport’s security and fire brigade teams responded immediately and extinguished the fire while adhering to all necessary safety measures. The affected container and baggage are currently being examined by the Mumbai airport authorities,” it said.
The airline added that the aircraft was dispatched in accordance with standard safety procedures as there was no incident on the aircraft itself.
Published August 17, 2024, 3:26 p.m. IS
