Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: Hoax threat messages continue to wreak havoc on flights of Indian carriers. While Air India got a threat for five flights — Mumbai-London (AI 129), Delhi – New York JFK (AI 119), a Chennai-Singapore and two domestic on Thursday, — IndiGo and Vistara threats for two flights each. AI Express is also learnt to have got similar messages for six flights but a confirmation is awaited from the airline.The number of flights that have received such threats is now close to 40 since the start of this week.
“AI flights to New York and Singapore landed uneventfully. The flight to London was asked to hold for a while and in that time the airline informed the UK authorities about a non-specific threat. Finally it was allowed to land at Heathrow,” said people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, Union aviation ministry is working on a deterrent by by working on new rules to deal with hoax callers and punish them severely, including putting them on no fly list. It is also looking at global best practices to tackle this issue. “The law department is being consulted for the legal framework of the proposed new rules. Legal opinion is being sought on them. We hope to put in place new regulations with harsher penalties, including putting such callers on no fly list for a long time,” said sources. The ministry is also consulting with International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Both the Vistara flights that received hoax threats were international — Frankfurt-Mumbai (UK 28) and Paris-Delhi (UK 22). Both landed at their destinations.
IndiGo flights that got threats were Lucknow-Pune (6E 11*) and Istanbul-Mumbai (6E 18). They also landed at their destination. In all these cases, planes were parked at a remote bay for being thoroughly checked.
An Air India aircraft that had got diverted to Canada after receiving a threat while flying from Delhi to Chicago earlier this week, finally left for Chicago on Thursday.
Since Sunday, there have been dozens of hoax messages, leading to multiple diversions — including at airports abroad by AI and indiGo.
Airlines are now urging Govt to tackle this menace at the earliest as the same is putting huge financial burden on them. The spate of hoax calls is leading to scares abroad too. Singapore, for instance, scrambled jets on at least two occasions when an inbound flight of an Indian carrier received threats before landing there.
