Bomb threats to airlines continue; over 20 warnings received today (19 Oct)

Over 20 flights of various Indian airlines have received bomb threats since Saturday morning, PTI reported, citing sources.

Among the airlines that received the bomb threat were Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Vistara, SpiceJet, Star Air, and Alliance Air.

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An Air India Express flight IX-196 , flying from Dubai to Jaipur with 189 passengers onboard, received a bomb threat via an email at 12.45am on Saturday.

IndiGo's flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul, Jodhpur to Delhi, and Vistara's flight from Udaipur to Mumbai also received similar threats.

In two separate statements, the airlines said that the situation involved flight 6E 17 from Mumbai to Istanbul, and flight 6E 11 from Delhi to Istanbul, according to PTI.

The airline said it was working closely with the relevant authorities and taking all necessary precautions according to the guidelines.

"Flight 6E 184, operating from Jodhpur to Delhi, received a security-related alert. The aircraft has landed in Delhi and customers have disembarked the aircraft, we are coordinating with the security agencies as per procedure," the airline said in another statement.  

Nearly 40 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received hoax bomb threats in the past few days.

Due to the hoax threats, many flights were diverted while some airlines were forced to re-screen all their passengers, causing major inconvenience and delays.

Earlier this week, civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu said law enforcement agencies are actively pursuing all cases of bomb threats against airlines and the government is closely monitoring the situation.

The Union government is also planning to increase the deployment of air marshals on flights, while investigation agencies examine whether there is a “pattern” in the warnings.

“There is a pattern behind the messages. A threat is given using social media or through a phone call, and then suddenly similar threats start to appear within a short span of time. VPNs have been used to post the messages to avoid being traced. We are analysing the pattern, and investigation agencies are coordinating to locate the source (s) of threats,” an aviation security officer said.

A senior intelligence officer said the bomb threats appeared to be a part of a ploy to increase the burden on security agencies. “There has been chatter in anti-India circles to issue bomb threats to unsettle the aviation sector to a level that security forces are overstretched,” the official told HT, requesting anonymity.