Passenger on flight that made emergency landing found smuggling gold

Nedumbassery: The emergency landing of a Kozhikode-bound plane at the Cochin International Airport the other day wrecked one passenger’s bid to smuggle gold.

The flyer, identified as Samad of Malappuram, was arrested with 1,650 grams of gold mixture.

A SpiceJet flight from Jeddah to Kozhikode on Friday was diverted to the Cochin airport at Nedumbassery after it developed a snag in the hydraulic system.

It made an emergency landing in Nedumbassery and passengers were taken to Kozhikode later at night on another SpiceJet aircraft which had arrived from Dubai.

Before the passengers boarded the flight to Kozhikode, they spent some time waiting for the regular checks. During this interval, Samad took a rest in the airport hall.

Meanwhile, he attempted to remove the gold which was hidden in a towel tied around his waist and shift it to his bag.

An officer of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) deployed to keep a watch on the passengers noticed Samad’s unusual movements and informed Customs officials.

When Customs inspected Samad’s bag, they found two packets of gold mixture. The gold would fetch around Rs 70 lakh, said officials.