Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Ganpati Raju has suspended ground handling and security officers of AirIndia for lapses in detecting dummy grenade in one of the airlines plane that was to operate from Jeddah to Mumbai.

Earlier, a joint team of AirIndia and bureau of Civil Aviation security rushed to Mumbai and investigated the incident and questioned the persons concerned in order to fix responsibility for the lapse.

According to civil aviation ministry spokesperson, staffs that were involved in clearing the aircraft for operations were suspended, including officials from the security branch. The spokesperson added that the Civil Aviation Minister will review the security matter next week with senior officials of the organisation concerned.

Union Civil Aviation Minister has said the object found in Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah air India flight was a stun or dummy grenade but has no explosives. The Minister told reporters in Vizianagaram of Andhra Pradesh last evening that the grenade may have remained after a mock security drill and has BSF marking. He said it is a failure and unacceptable even if there was no threat for passengers. Mr Raju further said a joint team from Air India and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security is investigating the incident.

The AirIndia flight operated on the Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jeddah sector. On landing at Jeddah cabin crew found a suspicious object and informed the concerned authorities. After screening the aircraft the object was found to be a plastic wrapper. Thereafter it was cleared by the Jeddah airport security for further operation. The aircraft was standby for use by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.