NEW DELHI: Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu on Wednesday expressed grave concern over multiple incidents of hoax threat to several airlines even as seven more flights received hoax threats on Wednesday, taking the count to 19 in three days.
He said the government was monitoring the situation and pursuing all cases actively. The minister said the Mumbai police had arrested a minor for issuing bomb threats to three flights, adding that all others responsible for the flight disruptions would be identified and prosecuted.
His statement came even as Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam was earlier in the day summoned by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transportation where several MPs expressed concern over the matter.
The Secretary is learnt to have informed the panel that the suspects were being identified and action taken. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police have lodged eight FIRs against unknown persons in connection with the hoax threats made to several airlines over the past three days.
The minister said he had chaired a meeting on October 14 in connection with the matter, which was attended by officials from the Directorate of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Civil Aviation Ministry. “I am monitoring the situation regularly and our law enforcement agencies are pursuing all cases actively….Such mischievous and unlawful actions are a matter of grave concern and I strongly condemn any attempts to compromise the safety, security and operational integrity of our aviation sector,” he said.
He assured stakeholders and passengers that every possible effort was being made to safeguard the operations. In less than 24 hours, nine flights received bomb threats and the total count has climbed to at least 19 in three days. The threats have turned out to be a hoax. On Wednesday, bomb threats were received by four IndiGo flights, two SpiceJet flights and one flight of Akasa Air.
Late Tuesday night, one flight each of Vistara and Air India Express had received hoax threats. IndiGo received bomb threats for three flights, including the Riyadh-Mumbai flight 6E 74 that was diverted to Muscat (Oman).
Another flight 6E 1011 from Mumbai to Singapore received a security-related alert and the flight landed at Singapore. IndiGo’s flight 6E 515, operating from Chennai to Lucknow, received a security-related alert. After landing at Lucknow, the aircraft was positioned at an isolated bay and all passengers were safely disembarked, the airline spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, late on Tuesday, a Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight from the national capital was diverted to Ahmedabad after a bomb threat. An Akasa Air flight en route to Bengaluru returned to Delhi on Wednesday afternoon following a bomb threat.