Jet Airways offloads India passenger over 'terrorist' joke

  • Published
A Jet Airways flightImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

The passenger had taken the photo to send to a friend

A passenger on a domestic Indian flight was offloaded and detained after he photographed himself and used a caption that included the word "terrorist".

Yogvedant Poddar had allegedly covered half of his face with a handkerchief and captioned the photo: "Terrorist on flight, I destroy women's hearts".

A co-passenger, who glimpsed the photo, alerted the crew on the Jet Airways flight from Kolkata to Mumbai.

Mr Poddar was going to send the photo to a friend over Snapchat, police said.

The pilot was forced to turn back on the tarmac so that security officials could take the passenger into custody.

In a statement, airport officials said they detained Mr Poddar, who is in his 20s, for "mischievous activity on board" as he was found using language "which was inferred as a security threat".

His father told local media that Mr Poddar "was indulging in a prank".

The flight, which had more than a hundred passengers on board, was delayed by about an hour and a half.