Nearly 80 flights receive bomb threats on Tuesday

Hyderabad: Nearly 80 domestic and international flights received bomb threats in less than 24 hours on Tuesday, keeping thousands of passengers and security agencies on tenterhooks. All the threats turned out to be fake.

The estimated losses incurred by airlines due to the disruptions would be around `600 crore, according to two former airline officials.

Two flights that took off from Hyderabad received bomb threats after they landed at their destinations on Tuesday, said RGIA station house officer K. Balaraju. One of the flights was bound to Bengaluru and the other to Jodhpur

A Bengaluru-Varanasi flight was diverted to Hyderabad after receiving a threat mid-air. Upon landing, the passengers were deboarded and the bomb squad checked the aircraft. After the threat was ruled a fake, the flight was allowed to resume its journey.

The police official said, “We do not really know who exactly has been doing it but all the threats are received via an email, and only by the Delhi Airport. We usually get information from the Delhi airport control room about such threats.”

On Monday, an Akasa Air flight that had taken off from Hyderabad to Jeddah had received a threat.

The aircraft that received threats nationwide included 13 each of IndiGo and Air India, 12 of Air Akasa and 11 flights of Vistara. Around 30 flights of IndiGo, Air India and Vistara got bomb threats on Monday night, they added.

In nine days, more than 170 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats, mostly through social media, that also forced the diversion of some of the international flights.

On average, disruption to a domestic flight would cost around `1.5 crore, according to PTI< while the expenses would be around `5.5 crore for an international flight.

Another official, who has served in the finance department of another domestic airline, said the operational costs are higher for wide-body planes compared to narrow-body planes. Apart from direct expenses such as fuel and airport parking charges, there are also indirect costs like impact on overall flight network, due to disruptions, the official added.

Meanwhile, the protocols for the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC), convened in the event of a bomb threat call to an aircraft or airport, have been tweaked to better tackle the spate of the ongoing “random” Internet-based threats being made to various Indian airlines, official sources said on Tuesday.

Also, the government is planning legislative actions to deal with bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators on the no-fly list.

Amendments are being proposed to The Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act (SUASCA), 1982, whereby the perpetrators could be arrested and a probe can be initiated without a court order for offences when an aircraft is on the ground.

Besides, changes are being planned to aircraft security rules to ensure stringent punishment for perpetrators of bomb threats to flights.