HYDERABAD: As many as 25 flights of Indian airlines, including one from Akasa Airlines connecting Delhi and Hyderabad, received bomb threats on Sunday, causing hardship to hundreds of passengers as authorities scrambled to move several aircraft to isolation bays at airports for detailed checks.
On Saturday, more than 30 flights of various Indian carriers received bomb threats, taking the number of flights affected by hoax calls to nearly 100 this week.
According to sources, hoax callers targeted six flights each of IndiGo, Vistara, Air India and Akasa Air, and at least one flight of Air India Express on Sunday.
After the Akasa Airlines flight landed in Hyderabad, the RGIA police, along with its local teams, immediately evacuated the passengers from the flight.
Subsequently, the passengers were allowed to step out of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport only after authorities screened all bags for two hours to ascertain that the threat was a hoax.
According to RGIA SHO K Balaraju, “The Delhi airline’s airport operations control centre (AOCC) received information about the threat, which was immediately relayed to RGIA authorities. They further uploaded the flight numbers and other information on Twitter. However, since the flight had almost reached Hyderabad, it was allowed to land in Hyderabad. Later, authorities conducted checks.”
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, an official from Akasa Airlines said that the situation was under control.
On Sunday, a handle on social media platform X that had issued bomb threats to some flights was blocked. Against the backdrop of bomb threats, mostly through social media, to airlines, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) held a meeting with representatives of airlines on Saturday.
The civil aviation ministry plans to put in place strict norms to prevent incidents of hoax bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators in the no-fly list.
