Mumbai: An Istanbul-bound flight of Turkish Airlines, carrying 332 passengers onboard, was called back from the runway here on Monday morning after an unclaimed mobile phone was found on a seat of the Boeing 777 plane, delaying the take off by over four hours.
The aircraft was brought back to the bay and all passengers were deplaned for a thorough frisking.
The Boeing 777-300ER plane, which was scheduled to take off for Istanbul at 0650 hours, finally left for its destination at around 1130 hours, sources said.
"Turkish Airlines' Bombay-Istanbul flight (TK721, Boeing 777-300ER Aircraft, carrying 332 passengers) has returned to parking area in Bombay after push-back due to an unidentified cell phone found onboard," Turkish Airlines senior vice president for media relations, Ali Genc, said in a statement.
Genc said the plane continued its flight to Istanbul after necessary security checks were carried out.
"Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul was called back from the runway at Mumbai airport after a suspicious object was found in the aircraft," a Mumbai airport spokesperson had said earlier.
Airport sources also revealed that an unclaimed mobile phone was the "suspicious object" which forced the pilot to return the plane to the bay.
(with agency inputs)