Hoax call syndrome irks Govt. :::: Sky marshals' number to increase, hoax callers may be put on no-fly list

The inter-ministerial meeting headed by civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu was called urgently after 10 Indian aircraft got bomb threats in less than 48 hours. 

While all of them were found to be hoax, it resulted in diversion and delays with one Air India aircraft from Delhi to Chicago diverting to Iqaluit airport in Canada.

Sky marshals' number to increase, hoax callers to be put on no-fly list: Sources

In the last three days, nearly a dozen Indian flights, operating on both domestic and international routes, have received hoax bomb threats.   

On Wednesday, officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Ministry of Home Affairs met to discuss the bomb threats received by airlines. 

The civil aviation ministry is working with law enforcement agencies to identify hoax callers to update the 'no-fly list'.  

Officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) were part of the meeting.

The government is considering a number of steps in view of the bomb threats received by some airlines recently, including putting the hoax callers on 'no-fly list'. The Govt may also increase the number of air marshals on flights. 

There has been already a suggestion about doubling the number of air marshals on flights.  In the last three days, nearly a dozen Indian flights, operating on both domestic and international routes, have received hoax bomb threats.

A unit of NSG commandos is deployed as air marshals mainly on international routes and some sensitive domestic routes.

Sky marshals are armed plainclothes security officers who travel on passenger planes. 

A Bengaluru-Delhi Akasa Air flight and Delhi-Mumbai IndiGo flight got bomb threats amid a series of hoax calls in the past three days.  

Two flights - one from Akasa Air and IndiGo - received bomb threats, which later turned out to be hoax calls on Wednesday. This is the 12th incident in the past three days.

Earlier, a Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Mumbai was diverted to Ahmedabad after it received a hoax bomb threat via social media. The flight carrying nearly 200 passengers and crew had taken off from Mumbai on Tuesday night. The threat was confirmed as a hoax.

"Akasa Air flight QP 1335, flying from Delhi to Bengaluru on October 16, 2024, and carrying 174 passengers, three infants and seven crew members on board, received a security alert. The Akasa Air Emergency Response teams monitored the situation to ensure all support was provided to the operating teams and information was transparently disseminated to relevant stakeholders," an Akasa Air spokesperson said.

"The Captain followed all required emergency procedures, diverted the flight back to Delhi and landed safely at Indira Gandhi International Airport at 1:48 pm," it added. "According to the prescribed safety and security procedures, the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay upon landing. All passengers were deplaned at 1:57 pm, in coordination with the local authorities who undertook the necessary safety and security checks," the company said.

On Tuesday, a Delhi-Chicago Air India flight, Jaipur-Bengaluru Air India Express, Dammam-Lucknow IndiGo flight, Darbhanga-Mumbai SpiceJet flight, Siliguri-Bengaluru Akasa Air flight, Alliance Air Amritsar-Dehradun-Delhi flight and Air India Express flight from Madurai to Singapore were the seven flights that got bomb threats.

On Monday, Oct 14th, two IndiGo flights and an Air India flight got similar hoax bomb threats. These were Mumbai-New York Air India flight, Muscat-bound IndiGo flight and another IndiGo flight heading to Jeddah. 

The threats were issued by unnamed accounts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Mumbai Police, sources said, has arrested one person who they think was involved in issuing the threats.

ends