Avantika Dassani recalls the ordeal of the fake bomb threat on her recent flight: I don’t get what people get out of…
Avantika Dassani opens up on going through the scare of a bomb threat on her recent flight and how it troubled her mother Bhagyashree
Avantika Dassani believes she has a “bombastic” start to 2025 as on January 13, the actor took a night flight from Goa to Mumbai which received a fake bomb threat. Recalling the ordeal, Avantika Dassani shares, “Interestingly, it was the pilot's first flight. So, it started off on that happy note. But before we landed, some of the air hostesses seemed to be in a little bit of panic. They opened our baggage and try to identify something. We thought it was some co-passenger who needed their bags.”
She adds, “When we landed, that gates weren’t opening, and we were kept waiting for about an hour. Outside the window, we could see all of these cop cars and there were ambulances, cars with the lights and stuff like that. We started wondering what's going on, and then the pilot said there was some slight safety concern. When they finally opened the gate, they made us take out all our hand luggage and placed it at a centre. We waited for about an hour to get our stuff back and our terminals were changed mid-air. When we reached the gate, another checking and screening happened. They even took handwriting tests from us all. It took about three to four hours. So, a flight which was supposed to take 45 minutes, lasted close to five hours.”
However, Avantika doesn’t have any qualms about the time taken: “I’d rather have them take time and follow protocol than cut corners.” But what was going on in her mind during this time? “Honesty, I had been reading that there have been an increase in the numbers of such fake stories. So, my head immediately sort of went to that. But I don’t get what people get out of pulling such pranks. It's just causing a menace. What is anyone really getting out of doing something so stupid? It just became one more experience in my life,” she responds.
The actor asserts that she didn’t feel scared at all during the whole incident. “By the time we got out of the flight, we were surrounded by so many security personnels and just the way the checks were going, I had already realised that something serious is going on. While I wasn’t scared, there were people around me who were obviously getting a little tense about the situation, not understanding what's happening and the scene was scaring them,” she says.
Avantika reveals that while she didn’t panic, her mother, actor Bhagyashree sure did: “In our family, we have this ritual that whenever anyone is taking a flight, we inform in the family group. My call always goes to mom, especially when I have a night flight. This time, I let her know about the situation and told her I don’t know how long is that going to take. I asked her to not wait up and sleep, but she responded saying, ‘Do You think I am going to sleep now?’ She waited for me till I got home. My flight was supposed to land at 10: 30pm, but I reached home by 4am.” However, there was a silver lining to it. “I reached home to the warmest hugs by my family and ate some ghar ka khana before I went to sleep,” she ends.
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