NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/KOLKATA: Indian carriers continued to grapple with a wave of bomb hoax threats for the sixth straight day, disrupting flight schedules and causing inconvenience during the busy festive travel season. More than 20 flights received threats Sunday — albeit lower than the single day’s highest of at least 40 flights Saturday.
The pattern of threats that began Monday has so far affected nearly 90 flights.Most of the affected flights originated from major hubs such as Mumbai and New Delhi, leading to extensive security checks, delays, and operational challenges.
Smaller airports like the one in Karnataka’s Belagavi were also targeted. It received a threat via email, but was declared a hoax after a detailed search of the premises. In Kolkata, the airport operations control centre received a bomb threat for an Alliance Air flight while it was mid-air. Flight 9I 0752, which departed from Lakhimpur in Assam, was just 12 minutes away from Kolkata with 73 passengers on board when the threat was received.
Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has urged operators to strictly follow standard operating procedures. Initial investigations suggest many of the messages were sent through virtual private networks or dark web browsers.
According to an official, the scale and frequency of the threats differ from earlier hoax calls, which were often made by passengers looking to delay their flights. “Given the number of threats, this could be part of a larger conspiracy to flood the industry with such messages so that one becomes lax. But we take every threat seriously,” the official said.
(Inputs from Bengaluru)