The Ministry of Foreign Affairs updated a travel notice for Thailand last Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

After the travel notice update was reported on Mothership.sg, some readers were wondering what triggered it and if it is a routine obligatory thing MFA does from time to time.

However, lo and behold, in an act of fortune-telling, there was indeed a bomb scare at the Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport two days later on Thursday, June 9.

Bomb scare likely triggered by Uber driver

According to a report in The Straits Times on Friday, June 10, 2016, that quoted Bangkok's airport security officials, the bomb scare there could have been triggered by an Uber driver trying to evade authorities.

At about 5.30pm that evening, a jogger found a suspicious package containing two phones in a clear plastic bottle and connected by cable to a power bank. It was left behind within the airport's compound.

An alarm was raised and the road in front of the Novotel hotel within the airport compound was closed for about half an hour.

Explosives ordnance disposal experts and bomb sniffer dogs were deployed.

But as it turns out, the two phones and power bank might have belonged to an Uber driver who ditched his devices temporarily to mask his real-time location to avoid being tracked by authorities.

It was explained in the ST article that airport staff regularly use the tracking feature on the Uber mobile application to locate and nab Uber drivers operating around the airport.

This is so as Uber services are currently illegal in Thailand, even though thousands of motorists have signed up as Uber drivers.

Travel notice widely shared

The security situation in Thailand has been calm the past 10 months, although major incidents had occurred in 2015 where improvised explosive devices and bombs went off.

The Singapore public was unaware at that time last week as to what triggered the update of travel notice to Thailand.

Regardless, the public took heed and shared the update widely:

It was assumed that travel notices are routinely updated to remind Singaporeans of situations in countries with hot spots of unrest, such as Syria, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and on precautions one can take, such as purchasing travel insurance and knowing where the Singapore embassy is located.

The update to the travel notice is also in light of the fact that many Singaporeans are travelling to Bangkok, Thailand during this June school holiday season

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