Indian airlines face nearly 1,000 hoax bomb threats, causing widespread disruptions

Airlines news

As of November 14, India’s airlines and airports have received 999 bomb hoax threats, a significant increase compared to previous years, according to the country's deputy civil aviation minister, Murlidhar Mohol. This marks nearly a tenfold rise in hoax threats compared to 2023.

Over 500 of these threats were reported in the last two weeks of October alone. The surge in hoax threats has caused major disruptions to flight schedules, leading to delays and cancellations. However, the minister assured that all of the threats had been hoaxes, with no actual danger detected at any airport or aboard any aircraft in India.

In response, police have filed 256 complaints, and 12 people have been arrested in connection with these incidents. The rise in bomb hoaxes this year is unprecedented. Between 2014 and 2017, there were only 120 hoax bomb threats, with nearly half targeting Delhi and Mumbai, the country's busiest airports.

The recent surge has caused significant operational issues, with several flights delayed and others diverted. Some of these hoaxes even led to international interventions. For example, in October, Singapore's Air Force sent two fighter jets to escort an Air India Express flight after a bomb threat. Later that month, an Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago was diverted to a remote airport in Canada, where passengers were eventually airlifted to Chicago.

India's civil aviation ministry responded by ensuring all necessary measures were in place to safeguard flight operations. Each airport in India has a Bomb Threat Assessment Committee that evaluates the severity of each threat and determines the appropriate response. If a threat is deemed serious, it leads to a comprehensive security protocol, including the involvement of bomb disposal squads, sniffer dogs, ambulances, and doctors. Passengers and their belongings are offloaded and re-screened, and the aircraft undergoes a full inspection before being cleared for takeoff. These security procedures cause significant delays, which can result in costly damages to airlines and security agencies.

In 2023, over 150 million passengers flew domestically in India, and the country saw more than 3,000 flights departing and arriving daily from over 150 operational airports, including 33 international airports.