Subhechcha Ganguly 
An official was quoted by news agency ANI as saying that an Iranian Mahan Air flight that was travelling from Tehran to Guangzhou in China on Monday hovered in Indian airspace for nearly 40 minutes before it was allowed to depart as the Indian Air Force sent fighter jets to deal with a purported “bomb threat.”
A340 aircraft could carry between 320 and 475 passengers. After receiving a bomb threat, the Mahan Air flight reportedly made touch with the Delhi airport ATC and requested a quick landing.
When Mahan Air made the contact, Delhi ATC responded by advising the plane to make an emergency landing in Jaipur. However, the pilot apparently refused to make the change and the plane departed Indian territory, according to ATC sources. According to reports, the plane was also given a second chance to land in Chandigarh.
Later, according to the IAF, the Iranian agencies instructed it to overlook the threat and allowed the Mahan Air passenger flight to continue toward China.According to reports, Su-30MKI fighter jets from the airfields in Jodhpur and Punjab were dispatched to handle the issue.
As per regular operating procedure, IAF jets followed the airliner while keeping a safe distance until it entered Indian territory.IAF sources were quoted by ANI as stating, “The aircraft is currently out of Indian air space. We continued to follow it carefully until the moment it exited Indian airspace.”The aircraft was under “tight radar observation,” the Air Force added in a statement. “All actions were taken by IAF as per laid down protocol, together with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) & Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS),” it added.
