Mumbai: An unexpected and serious situation has situation has arisen in India aviation history as 12 Indian aircrafts, including Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air and SpiceJet have received hoax bomb threats in the last three days. The threats leading to emergency situations and flight diversion have left flyers panicked and puzzled. The threats are not only creating significant disruptions, left hundreds of passengers stranded but raised grave questions over security measures and safety of passengers.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee met at 11 am on Wednesday over the issue preceded by a meeting called by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu with Civil Aviation Ministry and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials. Some culprits have been identified and the dark web is also being monitored, reported NDTV citing sources. While a 17-year-old minor is being questioned in an Air India bomb threat call case, reported News18.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Delhi-Bengaluru Akasa Air flight carrying 184 individuals returned to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on after a bomb threat prompted the airline to declare an emergency. Minutes after taking off from Delhi the flight was urgently diverted back. This became the 12th such aircraft in the last 72 hours which received an bomb scare.
Meanwhile, IndiGo's Mumbai-Delhi flight was redirected to Ahmedabad. The aircraft was isolated, and all passengers were safely disembarked, an IndiGo Spokesperson said.
On Wednesday morning, Canadian Air Force aircraft safely transported 191 stranded passengers from Iqaluit Airport to Chicago, after an 18-hour delay due to a bomb scare on an Air India flight.
On Monday, three international flights that took off from Mumbai were diverted or delayed after an X (formerly Twitter) handle posted threats. While on Tuesday, seven flights, including the two Air India planes, were affected by the threats issued by another X handle which has now been suspended. Screenshots of some of the posts show the user had tagged the airline and local police and mentioned the flight number, said a report by BBC.
Notably, fo the delay in international flights, the agencies of the concerned countries also get involved in the investigations. The trend of issuing threats online had increased lately, raising serious questions over usage of social media, dark web, fake users as well as safety and security.
