Indian airlines hit by nearly 1,000 hoax bomb threats

KATHMANDU: India’s airlines and airports received 999 hoax bomb threats this year as of 14 November, the country’s deputy civil aviation minister told its parliament.

This was nearly 10 times more than the threats received in 2023, Murlidhar Mohol said.

More than 500 of the year’s threats were received just in the last two weeks of October.

The dramatic surge in hoax threats had wreaked havoc on flight schedules, causing widespread disruption in services.

The recent threats were all hoaxes, Mohol said, with “no actual threat detected at any of the airports/aircraft in India”.

Police have registered 256 complaints and 12 people have been arrested in connection with these threats, the minister said.

But the cases mark an unprecedented spike in such hoaxes.

Between 2014 and 2017, authorities had recorded just 120 bomb hoax alerts at airports, with nearly half directed at Delhi and Mumbai, the country’s largest airports.

The flurry of hoax threats this October had delayed several affected flights while others were diverted.

Hoax threats against flights heading for other countries also lead to international agencies getting involved.

In October, Singapore’s Air Force sent two fighter jets to escort an Air India Express plane following a bomb threat.

The same month, another Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago was forced to land in a remote airport in Canada.

Passengers on the flight were later airlifted to Chicago on an Air Force plane deployed by Canadian officials.

India’s civil aviation ministry had then said it was making “every possible effort” to safeguard flight operations.

India’s airports have a Bomb Threat Assessment Committee which assesses the gravity of the threat and takes action accordingly. A threat can lead to the involvement of the bomb disposal squad, sniffer dogs, ambulances, police and doctors.

Passengers are off-loaded from the plane along with cabin baggage, check-in baggage and cargo, and they are all screened again. Engineering and security teams also search the plane before it is cleared for flying again.

The resultant delay can cost thousands of dollars in damages to airlines and security agencies.

More than 150 million passengers flew domestically in India last year, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry.

More than 3,000 flights arrive and depart every day in the country from more than 150 operational airports, including 33 international airports.

-BBC