100 threats to flights in 7 days: Bomb hoax streak continues

New Delhi: Airlines operating from India have received close to 100 threat messages—all of them turned out to be hoax—in the past seven days, with another 20-30 such messages from unidentified people on Sunday stretching the security and airport mechanism for another day.

Flights of IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and Akasa Air were among the flights that were impacted on Sunday.

In statements, IndiGo said its six flights—Jeddah to Mumbai, Kozhikode to Dammam, Delhi to Istanbul, Mumbai to Istanbul, Pune to Jodhpur and Goa to Ahmedabad—flights received threats.

“The safety and security of our passengers and crew is our highest priority and we are working closely with the relevant authorities and taking all necessary precautions as per the guidelines,” it said.

Vistara’s six flights—Delhi to Frankfurt, Singapore to Mumbai, Bali to Delhi, Singapore to Delhi, Singapore to Pune and Mumbai to Singapore—also received similar threats. The airline said it has notified authorities and security procedures were carried out as directed by them.

Air India has also received threats for six flights.

Akasa Air said in a statement that “some of our flights operating on October 20, 2024 have received security alerts” and its emergency response teams are monitoring the situation and are in touch with the security and regulatory authorities. The impacted routes were Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Delhi-Goa, Mumbai-Bagdogra, Delhi-Hyderabad, Kochi-Mumbai and Lucknow-Mumbai.

Since last Monday, various airlines have received around 100 threat messages—mainly through social media handles on X—and all of them were declared hoax messages.

In some cases, the planes flying to destinations abroad have been targeted. Some of the flights received threats after landing. In some cases, foreign military forces escorted Indian flights to destinations after threats were received.

While police forces in Mumbai and Delhi among others have registered cases, there is no information in public domain about investigators detaining a teenager in connection with threats to a couple of flights. The Delhi Police’s elite Special Cell has been roped in to investigate the case registered in the capital.

The government is also now mulling to put those sending hoax messages in a ‘no-fly list’ by amending existing laws.