Aakhir Tak – In Shorts
- A Star Air flight from Punjab received a bomb threat upon landing.
- After a four-hour delay, the flight took off post-investigation.
- Around 70 Indian flights have received hoax bomb threats in recent days.
Aakhir Tak – In Depth
A Star Air flight from Adampur, Punjab, to Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad, UP, faced a bomb threat shortly after landing. The flight touched down at 2:20 pm on Saturday, October 20, and panic ensued after the threat was reported. The Indian Air Force, in collaboration with civil authorities, immediately implemented standard operating procedures. After thorough checks, nothing suspicious was found.
Despite this, the flight was delayed by approximately four hours, with it finally taking off around 6:30 pm. This incident comes amid a spate of bomb threats targeting nearly 70 Indian flights in recent days, most of which have been hoaxes.
On Saturday alone, several domestic and international flights, including those of Air India, Vistara, Indigo, and Akasa Air, faced bomb threats. These threats severely disrupted flight operations, particularly affecting five Indigo flights, five Akasa flights, and multiple Vistara and Air India Express flights. Three of Vistara’s international flights received threats, including one en route to London that was diverted to Frankfurt for security checks, all of which turned out to be hoaxes.
An Air India Express flight from Dubai to Jaipur with 189 passengers also received a bomb threat via email. However, after a thorough search at Jaipur Airport, no suspicious items were found. Some of the IP addresses used to send these threats have been traced to international locations, including Germany and London. Central agencies are now looking into contacting VPN service providers to track the origins of these hoax threats.
To address the increasing number of hoax bomb threats, the government is working on new legislation. Proposed measures include adding those responsible for hoaxes to a “no-fly list” and imposing strict penalties on offenders.
