Bomb Threat Hoax Outbreak Shows No Sign Of Abetting, Dozen Flights And Counting

New Delhi- The union government has taken cognizance of the multiple hoax threat messages to various airlines in the past few days with the civil aviation secretary telling a parliamentary panel that the accused are being identified and action taken.

Civil aviation secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam suggested in the meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which is headed by JD (U) MP Sanjay Jha that investigators have gathered some information but given the sensitivity of information declined to share more details, sources said.

According to a report in the NDTV, Union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu met with the ministry and Directorate General of Civil Aviation officials prior to the parliamentary panel meeting at 11 am.

Here’s a comprehensive list of hoax call cases in the last two days.

1. A Riyadh-Mumbai flight of IndiGo was diverted to Muscat following a “security alert” on Wednesday morning and it landed in Muscat.
   
2. A Delhi-bound IndiGo aircraft from Mumbai was diverted to Ahmedabad after receiving a bomb threat on Wednesday, which later turned out to be a hoax.
   
3. An Akasa Air flight en-route to Bengaluru returned to New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon following a bomb threat.
   
4. On Tuesday, an Air India plane carrying 211 people from Delhi to Chicago was diverted to Iqaluit Airport in Canada following a bomb threat.
   
5. An Air India Express flight from Ayodhya to Bengaluru was delayed by almost three hours following a hoax bomb threat on Wednesday.
   
6. The Air India Express plane operating flight IX 684 from Madurai to Singapore had received a bomb threat on Tuesday. Singapore Armed Forces scrambled two fighter jets to escort the plane away from populated areas before the aircraft landed safely at Singapore’s Changi airport.
   
7. In total, seven flights received bomb-threat messages through a social media handle on Tuesday, prompting security agencies to undertake specific counter-terrorist drills at various airports.
   
8. Some other flights that received threat messages are the Dammam-Lucknow IndiGo flight, a SpiceJet flight from Darbhanga to Mumbai, an Akasa Air flight from Bagdogra to Bengaluru and an Alliance Air Amritsar-Dehradun-Delhi flight.
   
9. The serial hoax messages started from Monday, when an Air India flight from Mumbai to New York, carrying 239 was diverted to New Delhi early morning on Monday due to a bomb threat. The bomb threat was received through a post on X.
   
10. Three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats on Monday besides the Mumbai to New York flight. The other two, both operated by IndiGo, were delayed by several hours.
    

On Tuesday, the Mumbai Police served a notice to a teenage boy, his father, and another person from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh asking them to join questioning in connection with bomb threats posted on social media targeting three flights that originated from Mumbai.

Air India said the other local airlines have been subject to a number of threats in recent days, according to PTI.

“Though all have subsequently been found to be hoaxes, as a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously,” it said.

For the past several months, a group of American and Canadian citizens, primarily from separatist Sikh groups, have been openly calling for blowing up Air India flights, per Press Trust of India.

The situation has prompted the US state department to react.

“Any kind of threats against commercial aviation are inappropriate and matters that are dealt with extremely seriously by our own law enforcement agencies,” spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in a press meet.

Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now

MONTHLY	Rs 100
YEARLY	Rs 1000
LIFETIME	Rs 10000

CLICK FOR DETAILS