The IC 810 Patna-Ranchi-Delhi flight was on Tuesday grounded for several hours after a man claiming to be a relative of former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Jagdambika Pal allegedly made a call saying there was a bomb onboard.

Security personnel searched the aircraft, but no bomb was found, Patna airport Director A K Lakhaiyar said.

A complaint has been lodged with the police, Lakhaiyar added.

He said Traffic Superintendent Abdullah Khan received a call on phone no 2231453 from Idea mobile phone no 9812-14279 and the caller, who identified himself as Krishnadev Prasad, asked the airport official to delay the Indian Airlines flight, as Pal, his relative, was to board it for Ranchi.

The caller said Pal, who arrived in Patna by a Sahara flight from Lucknow and was scheduled to go to Ranchi by road, had changed his programme and wanted to catch the IA flight.

Lakhaiyar said when Khan expressed his inability to entertain the caller's request, the man made another call from the same number, which was registered by the caller identification device, this time saying that RDX was planted in the aircraft.