MUMBAI: As many as 25 flights of Indian airlines received bomb threats on Sunday, causing hardships to hundreds of passengers and forcing authorities to move scores of planes to isolation bays at the airports concerned for detailed checks.
The developments came a day after more than 30 flights of various carriers received bomb threats. This week, nearly 100 flights received threats sending security agencies into a tizzy. The threats later turned out to be hoaxes.
Six flights each of IndiGo, Vistara, Air India and Akasa Air, and at least one flight of Air India Express received the threats on Sunday, according to sources.
In separate statements, an IndiGo spokesperson said the airline was cognisant of a situation involving flight 6E 58 (Jeddah to Mumbai), 6E87 (Kozhikode to Dammam), 6E11 (Delhi to Istanbul), 6E17 (Mumbai to Istanbul), 6E133 (Pune to Jodhpur) and 6E112 (Goa to Ahmedabad). Passengers of these flights were disembarked safely.
Vistara said it got security threats for six flights UK25 (Delhi to Frankfurt), UK106 (Singapore to Mumbai), UK146 (Bali to Delhi), UK116 (Singapore to Delhi), UK110 (Singapore to Pune) and UK107 (Mumbai to Singapore).
“In line with the protocol, all relevant authorities were immediately notified and security procedures, as directed by them, are being carried out,” a Vistara spokesperson said in a statement. Security alerts were received for six Akasa Air flights QP1102 (Ahmedabad to Mumbai), QP 1378 (Delhi to Goa), QP 1385 (Mumbai to Bagdogra), QP 1406 (Delhi to Hyderabad), QP 1519 (Kochi to Mumbai) and QP 1526 (Lucknow to Mumbai).
“Following defined procedures and thorough inspections of six aircraft, they have been released for operations,” an Akasa Air spokesperson said. The sources also said there were threats for at least six flights of Air India flights.
An Air India Express flight IX481 from Kochi to Dammam received the bomb threat and the flight landed safely at Dammam, the sources said.
On Sunday, a handle on social media platform X that had issued bomb threats to some flights was blocked.
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.