NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/KOLKATA: Indian airlines are still contending with a series of bomb hoax threats, marking the sixth consecutive day of disruptions during this busy festive travel season. On Sunday alone, over 20 flights received threats, although this is an improvement from Saturday’s peak of at least 40 affected flights.
Since the wave of threats began on Monday, nearly 90 flights have been impacted. Most of these flights originated from major airports like Mumbai and New Delhi, leading to extensive security checks, delays, and operational challenges.
Smaller airports, such as the one in Belagavi, Karnataka, were also targeted; an email threat was sent there but was later deemed a hoax following a thorough search. In Kolkata, the airport’s operations control center received a bomb threat concerning an Alliance Air flight while it was in the air. Flight 91 0752, which had taken off from Lakhimpur in Assam, was just 12 minutes from Kolkata with 73 passengers on board when the threat was received.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has urged operators to strictly adhere to standard operating procedures. Initial investigations indicate that many of the threats were sent using virtual private networks or dark web browsers.
An official noted that the scale and frequency of these threats differ from previous hoax calls, which were typically made by passengers seeking to delay flights. “Given the volume of threats, this could be part of a larger conspiracy to overwhelm the industry with such messages, potentially leading to complacency. However, we take every threat seriously,” the official stated.
