Govt mulls banning hoax threat culprits from flights, examines global practices

New Delhi: Concerned over an alarming rise in the number of bomb hoaxes, the government is discussing multiple solutions to check this nuisance by adopting the best global practices and banning people making such threats from flying.

The civil aviation ministry is studying the best model available globally and it’s also in talks with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to strengthen the Indian model of handling such cases, said top government officials.

“This is inconvenience not just to passengers and airlines but for every stakeholder. The aviation and home ministries and security regulator Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) are working at multiple levels to not just check this menace but bring in enough punishments to discourage people from doing it,” said a top government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Dealing with the threat

While the aviation ministry is bringing penal provisions for people involved in making these calls, the home ministry and security agencies are speaking to virtual private network (VPN) service providers to ascertain the location of these messages. The home ministry is also looking at rules under the existing cyber laws to deter people making such threats.

Most of these threats come through VPN, which encrypts data and masks IP addresses to create a secure connection between devices over the internet.

Indian airlines received over 27 bomb threats in four days through email, social media and calls and all of them turned out to be hoax. Today, two international flights—one each by IndiGo and Vistara—received bomb threat calls. Air India said five of their flights received threat calls today.

It could be a case where some hoax threat calls were made and others followed it, maybe just to inconvenience someone’s flight trip, a senior government official said. “Look at the case of the minor arrested by Mumbi police—we need to ensure that there are enough consequences built in in the system to deter such people,” the official added.

No punishment so far

The Mumbai Police detained the 17-year-old boy from Chhattisgarh—he is suspected of issuing a bomb threat to an Air India flight via social media.

Currently, aviation rules do not have any provision to penalize such people. The aviation ministry is looking at bringing in rules like adding such offenders to the no-fly list or banning them from flights for a long duration, the official said.

As of now, in case of any such threat, a Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC), which is present at each airport, convenes to assess the threat. The committee comprises officials from the airport operator, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), BCAS, and the airline.

Factors such as the origin of the threat, specific details provided, and the timing of the message are evaluated. If a threat is classified as “non-specific”, the aircraft is not subjected to inspection. However, if the threat is deemed “specific”, flights are diverted to the nearest airport and then taken to an isolated bay, where passengers are evacuated and each and every luggage in the flight is checked. The aircraft is released for flight only after a thorough check

This set procedure won’t be reviewed and will continue to guide decisions on threat calls, officials said.