Air India suspended its two officials in-charge of security in Mumbai and Hyderabad as the minister intervened while a joint team of the airlines and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security rushed to Mumbai to investigate the incident and fix responsibility.
After the incident came to light, Air India initially issued a press release that "after screening the aircraft and the object which was found to be a plastic wrapper, the Jeddah airport security cleared the aircraft for further operations."
"The grenade may have remained after the mock drill .... It has BSF markings," Raju told reporters at Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. The security drill was carried out by National Security Guards between September 24-27 at select airports and aircraft across the country to check the alertness of the crew and others concerned.
Terming the incident as "unacceptable", he said though there was no threat to passengers, "there is some failure and this lapse may not be condoned. Corrective measures have to be taken."
On landing, the pilots were asked to take the plane to a remote bay where the security personnel took out the grenade and found it not having any explosive, the sources said.
It was later granted operational clearance.