Indian Airlines Fake Bomb Threats, Indian Airlines Bomb Alert: In the past few months, Indian Airlines flights have witnessed a massive surge in fake bomb threats. The fake bomb threats in Indian Airlines not only disturb the flight schedule but also induce a sense of fear among hundreds of travelers. Not to mention hoax bomb threats posted on social media are also 'bad for business' for the Indian Airlines sector. The seriousness of the Indian Airlines bomb threat can be understood by the fact that Indian flights received 25 hoax bomb alerts in a day. As per Odisha Bhasker, Indian Airlines flights received nearly 100 hoax bomb alerts in a week. The rise can be understood by the fact that a BBC report suggests that between 2014 and 2017, Indian Airlines flights received at least 100 fake bomb threats. And, now, the numbers have increased so much that in just 1 week, at least 100 bomb threats have been received. Now, the question arises why bomb threats in Indian Airlines are becoming so common?
Why bomb threats in Indian Airlines are becoming so common?
In recent days, it has been observed that most of the bomb threats that have been received are from social media especially from X. For instance, a bomb threat message was sent to six IndiGo flights through an anonymous account on X. The message claimed that there were 12 bombers spread across six Indigo flights, with two bombers on each plane. The flights mentioned were 6E87, 6E11, 6E112, 6E133, 6E58, and 6E17. IndiGo issued an official statement, in which it said that security measures were taken on the six flights which received threats. However, later it turned out to be a hox.
An official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) was quoted by Indian Express who said, "We know that 99.99 percent of the threats will turn out to be fake. But no one wants to take a chance with the remaining 0.01 percent cases as well. That is why despite strict pre-departure security checks at Indian airports, we take bomb threats very seriously, knowing fully well that most will turn out to be fake."
One of the reasons why bomb threats are rising is because anonymous users are posting such things and Indian agencies are unable to take strict measures against such people. No major arrests have been done despite a massive rise of such cases.
In case of a bomb threat, if a mid-air flight gets a bomb threat, an alert is sounded and a meeting of the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) at the airport is immediately convened. The next course of action is decided by the BTAC after the legitimacy of the threat is assessed. If the threat is considered to be legitimate of “specific”, then the pilots are asked to make their next move after contacting the Air Traffic Control (ATC). Based on the location of the flight, the pilots are instructed to return to the departure airport, head to the decided destination or divert the flight to a nearby airport.
What are the steps taken by India?
Recently, the Central Government transferred the Director General of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Vikram Dev Dutt, amid rising bomb threats. Dutt was transferred to the Ministry of Coal as Secretary. A new DG is yet to be assigned.
It is pertinent to mention here that a few days back Indian authorities arrested a 17-year-old school dropout for creating a social media account to issue such threats. His motivations were not revealed, but he is believed to have targeted four flights - three international - resulting in two delays, one diversion, and one cancellation. Investigators suspect that some posts may have originated from London and Germany after tracing IP addresses.
However, in order to curb such actions, Indian authorities need to act proactively and crack down on such people who induce fear in the name of a prank.