Aviation safety body meets airline CEOs after series of bomb threats in India

Dhaka: Flights of Indian airlines received a staggering 70 bomb threats in six days. The chaos led the officials of aviation safety body Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) meet the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the airlines in New Delhi on October 19.

During the meeting held at the civil aviation ministry's office in Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, the CEOs were asked to follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) for tackling the threats—causing inconvenience to passengers and losses to the carriers.

They were also asked to keep all stakeholders informed about the threats and the action being taken, reports cited officials saying.

Over 30 bomb threats were made against flights operated by different airlines on October 19 alone. According to reports citing officials, in the investigation so far, they have found that the IP (internet protocol) addresses from which some of the threats were issued this week were from London, Germany, Canada and the US.

However, they did not, rule out the use of VPNs (virtual private networks) by the people who made the threats to hide their actual locations.

The BCAS and aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are also expected to issue fresh guidelines for airlines to deal with bomb threats, added officials, according to reports.

The recent flurry of hoax calls and threats made through social media began on October 15 and the threats have continued every day since then, causing several flights to be diverted or delayed.

On October 19, Vistara said five of its flights on international routes received security threats through social media while at least four IndiGo flights received security-related alerts.

The other airlines whose flights received threats were Air India, Air India Express, Akasa Air, SpiceJet, Star Air and Alliance Air.

A 17-year-old boy was taken into custody by the Mumbai Police on October 16 for issuing threats to four flights on October 14, including three on international routes.

Reports claimed officials saying, the teenager wanted to frame one of his friends, with whom he had a dispute over money.

Over a dozen first information reports (FIRs) have been registered by the Mumbai Police and the Delhi Police in connection with the threats.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said, on October 17, initial investigations do not point to a conspiracy and that most of the calls had been "made by minors and pranksters".

Naidu said, steps are being taken to ensure that a "strict barrier is created for people trying to do these kinds of pranks" and that the civil aviation ministry has held meetings with airlines and security agencies as well.

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