The menace of hoax bomb calls to flights refuses to end, with several flights getting such threats on Friday. Civil aviation sources have said that more than 25 aircraft of various airlines received bomb threats today.
Both domestic and international flights of various airlines were targeted with threats. IndiGo said that 8 of its flights got security-related alerts. Similarly, 6 SpiceJet flights received bomb threats on Friday. 7 Vistara flights and 5 Air India flights were also issued similar threats.
As per reports, over 70 flights of various airlines received security threats within 24 hours on Thursday. These included threats to 20 Air India flights, 20 flights of Indigo, 20 Vistara flights and 13 from flights Akasa Airlines.
The total number of threats received by airlines has crossed 275 in the last 11 days. While the threats have turned out to be hoax, this is causing financial loss to the aviation industry, and disrupting flight operations. As per security protocol, any flight receiving threats have to make emergency landings, and the airport has to make arrangements for evacuation of passengers as soon as possible.
So far, there is no breakthrough in finding the source of the threats. The govt of India has asked Meta and X to share data about hoax bomb threats made using the social media platforms.
Earlier, the civil aviation minister had said that minors and pranksters are making hoax calls of bombs in flights, and there is no larger conspiracy behind it. Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that necessary actions were being taken by talking to airlines, security agencies etc. Stating that such “mischievous and unlawful” actions are a matter of grave concern, the minister strongly condemned “attempts to compromise the safety, security and operational integrity of the aviation section.”
