New Delhi. Most of the aviation companies in the country are continuously receiving bomb threats. Late Monday night, 30 planes were once again threatened with bombs. These include domestic and international flights of Indigo, Vistara and Air India (AI). In the last eight days, more than 120 planes have received bomb attack threats. However, all these threats have been proven false after investigation. An Indigo airline spokesperson said on Tuesday that four of its flights received security alerts on Monday. These include flight 6E164 coming from Mangaluru to Mumbai, flight 6E75 coming from Ahmedabad to Jeddah, flight 6E67 coming from Hyderabad to Jeddah and flight 6E118 coming from Lucknow to Pune. Vistara and Air India spokespersons also confirmed that some of their flights had received security threats. He said that we informed the concerned authorities about this and all protocols were strictly followed.
A day before this, on Monday, Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu had said that even though the threats being received by aviation companies are fake, we cannot take them lightly. He said that we will bring strict laws against this. Naidu said that the names of those making such threats could be included in the ‘no fly list’. He said that the Central Government is planning to amend the Aviation Security Rules and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Civil Aviation Security Act, 1982. The Union Minister said that the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is in constant touch with the Home Ministry on this issue.
Government took strict steps regarding threats to planes
The government has decided to double the number of air marshals on flights on October 16. On the same day, the Home Ministry had sought a report from the Civil Aviation Ministry regarding fake threats. CISF, NIA and IB have been asked to submit reports. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) held a meeting with the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of all the airlines on October 19. In this, dealing with false threats was discussed. Along with this, inconvenience to the passengers and loss to the airlines was also discussed. On October 19, the Central Government removed DGCA Chief Vikram Dev Dutt from the post and made him Secretary in the Coal Ministry. This change is being linked to threatening matters.
Mumbai Police has arrested a person in this case. Apart from this, a minor has been detained from Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh. Both of them had given bomb threat in Indigo flight. A passenger was detained at Kochi Airport in Kerala on Monday for making a bomb threat. It is noteworthy that in the last 8 days, due to the threats received by the aviation companies, there has been a loss of more than Rs 200 crore in a week. When information is received about bombs in planes, flights are landed at nearby airports instead of their scheduled airports. Not only does this lead to higher fuel consumption, arrangements also have to be made to re-check the aircraft, accommodate passengers in hotels and take them to their destination. In fact, this week more than 70 domestic and international flights of Vistara, Air India, Indigo, Akasa, SpiceJet, Star Air and Alliance Air have received threats.
