A SriLankan Airlines flight from Chennai to Colombo was searched on 3 May, after authorities at Chennai Airport received an email claiming that five suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives were on board.
The threat, received at 11:05 a.m. by Chennai’s Chief Security Officer, stated that “five South Indian males on UL122 (9:55 a.m.) are Lashkar operatives. Clean profile, well-trained, no suspicion.” However, the flight had already departed by the time the message was received.
According to Sri Lanka’s Air Vice Marshall (Retd) Nishen Abeysinghe, Director of Aviation Security, Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), the warning arrived in Colombo approximately 15 minutes after the flight had landed, by which point many of the disembarked passengers had already left the terminal.
“We were told there were between three and five suspicious people on the flight,” he said. “But by that time, only transit passengers were there. We deployed some patrols and special teams to look out for any unusual behaviour.”
Security personnel focused their attention on transit passengers and the aircraft itself.
No arrests were made.