KOLKATA, India, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Two lunch boxes hidden in the toilets of a Jet Airways plane triggered first a bomb scare and then a smuggling probe as the tins were found to contain 12 gold bars each, a senior customs official said on Wednesday. 
 
 Smuggling is on the rise into India, one of the world’s biggest buyers of gold, after the government raised import duty to a record 10 percent and slapped restrictions which have shrivelled supplies into the domestic market. 
 
 The Jet Airways plane had arrived at Kolkata’s international airport from Patna on a domestic flight, but normally operates between the gold trading hub of Dubai and Mumbai, home to India’s largest gold market. It was undergoing routine cleaning when maintenance staff discovered the two small tins. 
 
 “There was a bomb scare immediately when the bags were spotted in two separate toilets at round 1 a.m., but later we found they contained 12 pieces of gold bars in each,” Additional Commissioner of Customs at the airport, Rameshwar Meena, told Reuters. 
 
 “The gold bars are from Dubai for sure. The flight had come from Patna to Kolkata last, but its basic route is Dubai-Mumbai.” 
 
 The bars weigh 1 kg (2.2 pounds) and are about the same size as a portable smart phone. Meena said the haul was worth 73.68 million rupees ($1.18 million). Customs officials said there had been five cases over two months involving a total 100 kg. 
 
 “We feel that what we catch is less than 10 percent or so and there are so many groups operating, it is impossible for us to keep a check,” said an official at the revenue intelligence department, who asked not to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media. 
 
 Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said this month the measures had prompted a slight rise in smuggling, but his officers had said no one could bring in more than 5 kg. 
 
 “You cannot carry more than 5 kg of gold and still go undetected,” he told CNBC TV18. 
 
 At Kolkata, Meena said investigators were questioning airline and airport staff. Profiles of passengers on the flight from Dubai were being checked. 
 
 The revenue intelligence officer said a man had been arrested in an earlier case on suspicion of concealing 5 kg of gold in the toilet of an Air India plane in Dubai. He left the plane in Mumbai and another passenger removed the gold after it had flown on to Goa. 
 
 Crews are now on alert for passengers lingering in the loo. 
 
 “We are educating (our staff) about aircraft maps of how toilets are in an Airbus or a Boeing. We are also asking the aircraft crew to tip us off about people who spend slightly more time in toilets,” the revenue intelligence officer said. ($1 = 62.2925 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Sujoy Dhar; Additional reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar in MUMBAI; Editing by Ron Popeski) ||||| Passengers experience nose, ear bleeding on Jet Airways flight Jet Airways passengers on board a Boeing 737 aircraft flying from Mumbai to Jaipur on Thursday underwent a painful experience after the crew forgot to switch on the cabin pressurisation system which maintains the pressure inside an aircraft to comfortable levels as it climbs out. 
 
 Suresh Prabhu tells DGCA to prepare safety audit of all airlines, airports Airlines in India face a particularly hostile environment due to excessively high taxes on aviation turbine fuel (ATF). In fact, ATF prices for domestic flights in India are among the highest in the world. 
 
 JAIPUR: Mumbai-based professional Prashant Sharma had never realised flying could be "so terrifying" until his Thursday morning flight to Jaipur.There were screaming and cries and many of his co-passengers suffered nose and ear bleeding as the crew of the Jet Airways flight "forgot" to turn on a switch that controls cabin air pressure.According to 39-year-old Sharma, who was on an official trip, the terrifying experience began 5-10 minutes into the flight.As the plane climbed, oxygen masks got deployed from overhead compartments and the crew announced that the flight would return to Mumbai, triggering panic among some passengers."I was sitting on an aisle seat when suddenly air pressure in the cabin dropped and oxygen masks came down. I saw a passenger sitting next to me bleeding from nose. Several others complained of extreme pain in their ears," Sharma told PTI after he landed in Jaipur in an alternative flight."The crew announced that the plane will return...It then circled overhead for around half-an-hour before landing. There was no announcement (related to the problem) from the crew," said another passenger.Darshak Hati, who shot a video on board and posted it on social media, narrated a similar story."I hope that such a situation never occur in the future. There was no response in the first flight that took off from Mumbai. Cabin crew just regretted the inconvenience and delay in the alternative flight," Hathi said at the Jaipur airport.There were 166 passengers and five crew members on board flight 9W 697 that took off from Mumbai to Jaipur."During a climb, the crew forgot to select bleed switch due to which cabin pressurisation could not be maintained. As a result, oxygen masks got deployed," the official at aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), said.The Boeing 737 aircraft returned to Mumbai due to "loss of cabin pressure" and the pilots have been taken off duty pending investigation, a Jet Airways spokesperson said.Citing initial information, the official said a few passengers have nose bleeding. ||||| A passenger was removed from an Indian aircraft after trying to enter the cockpit to charge his phone. 
 
 The man, who was drunk according to some reports, attempted to enter the cockpit on 24 September as it prepared to leave Mumbai for Kolkata. 
 
 He was thrown off the flight "on the grounds of a security violation" and handed over to police. 
 
 "While an IndiGo aircraft was on the ground, an unruly passenger tried to enter the cockpit stating that his mobile needs to be charged", an airline spokesperson said. 
 
 Image: A passenger tried to open the exit of a GoAir plane, thinking it was the toilet 
 
 "Following standard operating procedures the captain operating 6E-395 flight from Mumbai to Kolkata initiated the offloading of the passenger on grounds of security violation", they added. 
 
 Local media reports say the man, believed to be about 35, was questioned at a police station and later released without charge. 
 
 In another incident this week, an Indian passenger tried to open a plane door in mid-air, apparently mistaking it for the toilet. 
 
 The man, believed to be a first-time flyer, was on a GoAir flight from New Delhi to Patna on 22 September when he tried to open the plane's rear door, the airline said. 
 
 Another passenger noticed what the man was doing and alerted the plane's crew, according to a GoAir spokesperson. 
 
 0:41 Video: Cabin crew aboard the Jaipur bound flight forgot to pressurise the cabin 
 
 The man was handed over to police after the plane landed safely in Patna. 
 
 It is believed he would not have been able to open the door due to air pressure in the cabin. 
 
 In another incident last week, more than 30 passengers were hospitalised with nose bleeds, headaches and ear pain after crew on a Jaipur-bound flight forgot to pressurise the cabin.
– Jet Airways workers in India made a million-dollar discovery in the most of unusual of places—two dozen gold bars stuffed into a plane's toilets, reports AFP. Smugglers apparently hid the bars in two boxes and jammed them in there, but the cleaning crew in Kolkata got to them first. India is a major buyer of gold, and a steep hike in taxes has led to a rise in smuggling, explains Reuters. Its story includes this quote from an investigator: "We are also asking the aircraft crew to tip us off about people who spend slightly more time in toilets."