The bomb hoax menace continued on Saturday too. According to sources, 20 airlines received bomb threats. Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Vistara, SpiceJet, Star Air, and Alliance Air were among those who received the bomb hoax calls. More than 40 bomb hoax calls in the week.
This menace has caused tremendous pressure for the Aviation industry which is still trying to trace who was behind these calls and what was the motive behind these calls because till now the calls have been nothing but “prank calls”. However, these prank calls have caused huge damage to these aviation players who have to ground or redirect the flights to another location that incurs huge expense. In many cases, the airlines are required to arrange stay for the stranded passengers till they catch the next connecting flights.
The intillegence says, the prank calls are made to keep the Aviation industry staff and security agencies under pressure.
Earlier, on Thursday, the Aviation Ministry had a meeting with Home Ministry alongwith security agencies to find a solution to this problem. It was decided that if guilty the person will be out in the ‘no flying list’. Further, the government was exploring stringent punishment like bringing the accused under MOCA etc. The investigating agencies are clueless and are unable to trace the origin of these messages.
According to an aviation security officer, the caller/callers are using a cult pattern in sending messages. A threat is given using social media or through a phone call, and then suddenly similar threats start to appear within a short span of time. VPNs have been used to post the messages to avoid being traced.” He said that the agencies are trying to trace the pattern, after which the investigation would become much easy. “Investigation agencies are coordinating to locate the source (s) of threats,” he added.
