PS: The guy is supposedly a nut case who made bomb threats before.

Simply curious.

If the bomb threat was made in the US.... and the nearest runway was Regan National.... Do we think that the US authorities would permit a landing there?

Certain airfields are designated to receive this sort of traffic for a large number of reasons. ATC is not one of them, nor has it anything to do with the decision making process.

" what would have been the reaction from the ground had anyone tried that on September 11,2001? "

This seems a bit of apples and oranges....a possible threat as opposed to an actual attack and it's aftermath, with the SCATANA protocol activated.
I'm sure, in your scenario, they probably would have been diverted to a military field....same for the Reagan National scenario - lots of suitable military fields close by....imo.

Of all the suitable airports in India, runway length, fire cover etc. was Delhi actually the nearest airport or the first identity that sprang to the crew's mind perhaps taking in to consideration Delhi was already on SQ's network, handling agent, crew change, daily check, crew hotel etc?

Obviously the crew's minds were distracted by another circumstance but nominating to divert to a major capital city with a, possible, bomb on board with a worldwide televised event going on, well .....

Just curious what Heathrow would say .... "Hello Heathrow, we've got no slot, we've got a bomb on board, can we come in?" ..... "Nope, you can p1ss off to Stansted" ... just perhaps :)

SVQ aircraft denied emargency landing at Delhi.
 

OK Folks,
I do not know all the facts re this incident, but if my understanding of the reports is correct, there is one action that could be taken
Any international Air India flight is banned from any airspace other than their own for a month or so.

Flying mostly to central america, south america and the caribbean I don't think any of those countries would park trucks on their runway to not let you land in an emergency situation. Saving your passengers and crew is your only concern and none of those countries would hinder you from expeditiously getting your aircraft on the ground safely. I don't know about the far east. seems pretty barbaric. By the way I didn't say I would go direct watch my blip unless they wouldn't cooperate and give me the expeditious handling I needed at the time. One of our pilots had to do that because they weren't responding to his request.

P51guy Flying one night over Port Au Prince in the mid to late 90's on way to the South, a Lear Jet radioed pan, pan, pan to Port Au Prince and simultaneously declared emergency with some sort of mechanical difficulty and informed PAP that he was going to land at PAP. ATC actually answered rather quickly (!!!!) and informed the Lear they could NOT land PAP. The pilot pressed the issue and was informed by ATC that it would be fired upon if it attempted a landing at PAP. The Lear diverted next door to the D.R. at Santo Domingo. Apparently there was some sort of coup or somesuch and Haiti wasn't accepting anybody that evening.

@ Pa 128 Notam
 

PA - 128

Certainly the flight would not be shot down and the runway would not be blocked, so the basic answer is "yes". However IAD or BWI would be a better choice for all concerned for numerous reasons that have nothing to do with security.

Who cares about an airspace notam, "Bomb/smoke/fire" on the ground ASAP. Agree with the post " declare mayday" ATC should do everything to assist, Delhi ATC should be hung . I'm putting it the ground where I want when I want,period

OPLA (Lahore) would have been the nearest one it seems that only airline requirement due crew change available was catered for not safety.

Fatbus, I hope you are sticking to the more regular destinations, ´cause had you tried to come into DEL with a Specific Bomb Threat that evening, you would have ended up with some Russian hardware in your tailpipe. It was as close to a war zone as it comes without dogfights, and knowing from the locals the amount of SAMs and MIGs being deployed it is Incredible that nobody repeated the opening scene from the classic film "The Party" :}.
Nice to sit in an armchair in Dubai or in Norhalne polishing the ego but not as much fun as doing evasive maneuvres down the final to DEL as we had to do that night :E. NOTAM or ATIS? No, that would have given too much clue about what to come next, and you don´t do that when you expect to be under attack :=. Paranoia? India has more terror related killings than the rest of the world combined (look up the statistics), so the percieved threat is very present. Flight safety? Some day it will hopefully take precedence over Security and Politics, but that day will not come until a lot of fundamentals have changed in this part of the world :ugh:.
Come and enjoy the Commonwealth Games; there are lots of vacant hotel rooms and seats in DEL: War tourism has yet to gain in popularity :\.
T.

I recall an incident a year ago where an aeroflot aircraft with a medical emergency was denied landing in the US and had to land in Canada. The reason given was that the flight had departed from Cuba.

I don´t remember the whole story, and I imagine that a medical emergency is not a bomb threat, but I remember reading in the papers that it is the US policy to deny landing to any aircraft, of any airline, coming from Cuba, even in case of an emergency. Is this true?

I think that says it all!!! So maybe SQ should respond

Vid1977Don't know, but I do know that several U.S. carriers have regular service between the U.S. and Cuba. American Airlines flew a daily 727 back in the 90's to Jose Marti from Miami. The flights operated as Special Authorization Charters and as far as I know AA still has some flights to Cuba from Mia along with American Eagle.
Also, for decades now, U.S. air Carriers have traversed across Cuban airspace mostly for cities on the South American continent. Don't know what the ATC charges are these days, but back in the early 90's, the charges were about $165 each way per flight. The Cuban controllers were, I think among the top tier of controllers thruout North, Central and South America. Effecient and generally helpful, offering direct routings on request and often offering direct routings on initial contact with Havana Center.

Aeroflot A332 over Atlantic on Oct 8th 2009, medical emergency refused by USA

By equality so should JFK!!!