Bag with chemical catches fire before being loaded on Ethiopian Airlines flight; five held

Mumbai: Five persons have been arrested here after a bag with an inflammable chemical caught fire before it was loaded on a Mumbai-Addis Ababa flight of Ethiopian Airlines at the Mumbai international airport, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place 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), said an official of Sahar police station.

Naveen Sharma, suspected to be in `Congo', was wanted in the case, he added.

While the luggage was being loaded in the flight around 10.30 am on Friday, smoke was seen coming out of a bag which soon caught fire but it was quickly doused, said the police official.

Bishwas was detained and questioned at the police station. He allegedly told police that one Nandan Yadav had given him the bag, to be delivered to Naveen Sharma in `Congo'.

Subsequently, Yadav and three others including logistic company employees too were arrested.

The bag contained 10 kg of inflammable material, half of it in liquid form and the remaining in the form of powder, the official said, adding that it has been sent to a forensic laboratory to ascertain its exact nature.

While Bishwas and others were arrested under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, probe into the purpose of carrying the inflammable material on a flight was being probed, he added.

Ethiopian Airlines too issued a statement about the incident.

"On August 16 morning, at Mumbai Airport a baggage container carrying baggage checked in for ET641 (Mumbai-Addis Ababa) in the ramp area was observed with fire. The incident occurred at the ramp while the container was being transported from the baggage make-up area to the aircraft," it said.

"The airport safety, security and fire teams responded immediately and put out the fire with all necessary safety procedures. The affected container and baggage is under investigation by the authorities at Mumbai airport," it said.

The aircraft was dispatched following the standard safety procedures as nothing had happened at the aircraft side, the airline added.