Aviation Minister calls for amendment to crack down on offenders.
An Air India 787 in London (Photo: AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson)
Six additional airline flights have declared a state of emergency, Tuesday, after an influx of phony bomb threats at several Indian airlines disrupted flights for passengers traveling around the world last week, according to an NPR report.
The report stated that all flights affected landed safely after squawking code 7700 for a general emergency.
India’s Hindustan Times reported on Monday that 100 bomb threats were made, with most turning out to be hoaxes. The article stated that on Sunday alone, over 20 flights from IndiGo, Akasa Air, and Vistara were impacted by the bomb threats. Many of the threats are reported to have been posted on social media.
Indian Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu held a press briefing on Monday where he said that eight flights had been diverted over the previous week due to these bomb threats. He explained that India’s Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act already forbids this type of illegal behavior, but amendments in the act’s jurisdiction would be necessary to enact harsher penalties for offenders.
“If you want to address these kinds of threats that have been happening, or you want to take strict action against the people who are behind this when there is a fake or a hoax threat that they want to do, then we have to cover the act under on the ground and at the airport also,” Naidu said in the briefing. “So we are trying to make an amendment.”
A FlightRadar24 report stated that on Oct. 15, Air India flight AI127 was traveling from Delhi to Chicago O’Hare when it was forced to divert to Iqaluit Airport in Canada following a bomb threat that was received mid-flight.
The aircraft carrying 231 people landed safely at the remote Arctic airport, and the Canadian Air Force helped transport the stranded passengers to Chicago while their original aircraft underwent two days of required security checks. AI127 completed its flight to Chicago on Oct. 17.
Several other aircraft were diverted throughout the week, with one Air India flight from Mumbai to London intercepted by the U.K.’s Royal Air Force after it received a bomb threat. FlightRadar24’s report stated this AI129 flight flew a holding pattern over East Anglia for around 30 minutes until it was determined the threat was another hoax. It proceeded to land safely at Heathrow.
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