Airport Closed After Passenger Accidentally Wrote” Bomb” On Her Bag Instead Of Bombay

Airport Closed After Passenger Accidentally Wrote” Bomb” On Her Bag Instead Of Bombay

Everybody knows the word “Bomb” better not be used in public areas. However, errors happen, yesterday a grandma traveling from India wrote on her bag “bomb” instead of Bombay which led to an investigation and shut down airport.

Venkata Lakshmi is the passenger who caused the commotion at the International Airport of Australia. 65 years old senior was traveling through Singapore from Mumbai to Brisbane. As she barely speaks English and not used to often flying, Venkata decided to indicate her destination on the bag in order to make sure it is not lost.

The problem occurred due to a very simple reason. Mumbai until 1995 was called Bombay, therefore, elder habitants still use this name in daily language. The careful passenger intended to write Bombay-Brisbane on the bag, however, she realized there is not enough space to do so. Only the first part of the word fitted and just by the accident it was „BOMB“.

Ms. Jothiraj the daughter of Ms. Lakshmi has revealed that her mother was very afraid of flying alone and with a tape with destinations on her bag she just wanted to help and make sure everything goes smoothly.

"She began writing Bombay before realising she had no space to fit it all in so she stopped at Bomb and wrote Bomb to Brisbane with Mumbai underneath" Ms. Jothiaj said and added that her mother has very limited English that is why she was very shy and scared of what is happening after she was taken to the room to be interviewed.

Ms. Lakshami's whole family including her grandchildren were waiting for her at the Brisbane airport. They started to worry after she didn‘t show up for more than 1 hour after landing. However, most probably due to the passenger‘s age or too many matching details airport‘s officers believed a woman and released her after an hour.

The spokesperson of Australian Federal Police confirmed the incident "An area near a baggage carousel was cordoned off and the item was examined in accordance with routine protocols, and was not deemed to be suspicious.".

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