Air India AI2772 Isolated at Kolkata After a Hijack Note Is Found in the Lavatory

Air India flight AI2772 from Kolkata to Mumbai was moved to an isolation bay on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, after cabin crew found a note threatening a hijacking in one of the aircraft’s lavatories before takeoff. All passengers were taken off the jet at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose airport while security agencies searched it.

The aircraft finally left for Mumbai at 5:38 p.m. local time, more than seven hours after its 10:20 a.m. scheduled departure, the Free Press Journal reported, citing the Airports Authority of India.

What the crew found

According to an airport statement carried by PTI, the cabin crew found the note inside a lavatory at 10:37 a.m., while the aircraft was still on the ground. Kolkata airport director Vikram Singh said the note warned that the plane would be hijacked at 11:10 a.m., PTI reported.

The full wording of the note has not been published. Airport sources told ETV Bharat that the message was written in lipstick, a detail no official has confirmed on the record.

The crew alerted the pilot, who informed air traffic control, and the aircraft was moved to the isolation bay. The airport’s statement said the aircraft had 105 passengers on board when the note was detected, while NewsX put it at 93 passengers and five crew.

The airport identified the jet as an A320 registered VT-TNH, an Airbus A320neo still in Vistara colors, according to NewsX. Some outlets gave the flight as AI 772, but the airport’s statement says AI 2772.

The four-digit number is a clue to the aircraft’s history. Since Air India absorbed Vistara in November 2024, flights flown by former Vistara aircraft carry a four-digit number beginning with 2, Prince of Travel reported at the time.

The search and the late departure

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and airport security teams searched the aircraft, and passengers’ luggage was checked as well. By early afternoon nothing suspicious had been found, WION reported.

An airport official told WION that passengers may be questioned about their movements and whether they noticed anything unusual, which is standard in such cases. Police and other agencies have opened an investigation to find out who wrote the note.

The Airports Authority of India confirmed that the checks were completed and the aircraft departed safely, according to the Free Press Journal. Air India had not issued a statement on the incident by that evening, and no arrest had been reported at the time of writing on November 12.

The second lavatory note in a week

Four days earlier, on November 7, IndiGo 6E451 turned back to Bengaluru after a handwritten hijack note was found in a lavatory during its flight to Lucknow.

On October 23, a note found in the lavatory of IndiGo 6E 6091 from Delhi to Chennai sent the aircraft back to its bay at Delhi, and that threat was later declared a hoax, News Karnataka reported.

Where the note turns up decides the cost. Found in the air, it can force a diversion or a return, while one found at the gate, as in Kolkata, mostly costs time: the aircraft, the passengers and their bags all have to be cleared before anyone flies.

How India weighs a threat, and what a hoax can cost

An isolation bay is a parking stand set apart from the terminal and other aircraft, where a jet can be searched without putting anyone else at risk. Whether a threat is treated as genuine is assessed by a Bomb Threat Assessment Committee at the airport.

Under a revised contingency plan the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued in October 2024, committee members meet on a secure video link as soon as a threat comes in, then gather in the airport control room. They weigh the source, the identity and capability of whoever made it, the motive, the timing and the security situation, the Free Press Journal reported then.

That plan followed a surge in hoaxes. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol told the Lok Sabha that around 1,000 hoax bomb threats were received in 2024, against 122 in 2023, with more than 250 police cases and 12 arrests, All India Radio reported.

In December 2024 the government amended the Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023. New rule 30A bars spreading false information that endangers an aircraft or airport or causes panic, and rule 29A lets the BCAS director general refuse a person boarding or order them off an aircraft.

Aviation lawyer Nitin Sarin told the Free Press Journal that breaches carry penalties of up to 100,000 rupees, and that rule 29A could be read as letting BCAS keep its own no-fly list. Whoever wrote the Kolkata note could face those rules as well as a criminal case, once identified.