The Rise Of Hoax Bomb Threats Disrupts Flight Operations Nationwide

India's aviation industry is reeling from a wave of hoax bomb threats that have disrupted flights across the country. More than 70 flights from various airlines received bomb threats on Thursday alone.

Among the affected airlines, Air India, Vistara, and IndiGo each received threats for around 20 flights, while Akasa Air received threats for about 14 flights. In the past 11 days, nearly 250 flights have received bomb threats. The unprecedented increase in fake bomb threats against several national and international airlines has caused severe disruption to India’s aviation industry.

Regulations require airlines to act on every threat; thus, dozens of planes have had to reroute and make emergency landings in foreign countries such as Turkey or Germany, or return to India.

On Sunday, Afghanistan denied permission for a Vistara flight heading for Frankfurt to make an emergency landing after receiving a bomb threat, forcing the plane to return to India. 

The motives remain unclear, as does whether the threats are from a single individual or a group. The aviation authorities have yet to determine the source and motivation for the recent rise in bomb threats, which are primarily sent via email or posted by anonymous accounts on social media platforms.

Last week, a 17-year-old school dropout was arrested for creating a social media account to issue such threats. His motivations remain unclear, but he is suspected of having targeted four planes, three of which were international, causing two delays, one diversion, and one cancellation.

The airlines are not new to such bomb hoaxes, but the sheer frequency of the calls this time is alarming. Between 2014 and 2017, authorities received 120 bomb hoax reports at airports, with roughly half aimed at Delhi and Mumbai, the country's largest airports.

Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan said on Monday that the government is planning to introduce legislation that would place offenders on a no-fly list and amend the 1982 Civil Aviation Act so that they can be arrested and investigated without a court order.

"Even though bomb threats are hoaxes, they cannot be taken non-seriously," Rammohan said.

Meanwhile, the government has started identifying those behind the menace and has asked social media platforms like Meta and X to share data on such messages, news agency PTI reported.

The government has also asked top multinational technology conglomerates to cooperate in helping identify those behind such hoax calls, stating that this involves the public good.

"The government has told social media companies Meta and X to share data pertaining to such hoax calls and messages made on their platforms targeting several airlines and asked them to cooperate," a senior official told news agency PTI.

"They will have to cooperate and provide data since this involves the public good at large," he said when asked whether the social media companies are cooperating with the government on the issue.