The ministry of civil aviation on Monday said it is looking for “serious solutions” to curb the menace of hoax bomb threats received by airports and airline carriers over the past week.
“This is something that is being looked into by the aviation regulator…very seriously…they are working towards finding out serious solutions,” said Asangba Chuba Ao, joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation.
This comes after Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the hoax calls received by airlines and airports in the last week are being thoroughly investigated. He vowed that perpetrators will face severe punishment.
“It has been observed in the last week that airports have received continuous hoax bomb calls. We are thoroughly pursuing these issues, especially in terms of the cases that have been registered and the police are pursuing who is behind them. We are trying to use intelligence, IB and all the other important people who are there in this, especially home affairs, everyone is cooperating and we are taking it very seriously. A strong punishment will be given to the culprits,” he said.
On Sunday (October 20) alone, 25 flights received bomb threats causing hardships to hundreds of passengers and forcing authorities to move scores of planes to isolation bays at airports concerned for detailed checks. Six flights each of IndiGo, Vistara, Air India and Akasa Air, and at least one flight of Air India Express received the threats, as per sources.
On Sunday, a handle on social media platform X that had issued bomb threats to some flights was blocked. Against the backdrop of bomb threats, mostly through social media, to airlines, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) held a meeting with representatives of airlines on October 19. The civil aviation ministry plans to put in place strict norms to prevent incidents of hoax bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators in the no-fly list.
Overall, at least 100 flights received threats this week sending security agencies into a tizzy. The threats later turned out to be hoaxes.
(With PTI inputs)
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