Over 80 flights receive hoax bomb threats from single X account

Barely after a day’s respite from rampant hoax bomb threats, over 80 domestic and international flights of various Indian airlines again received such threats from a single X handle on Oct 24, officials and airline sources said.

A source at the Pune airport was quoted as saying that all the threats across the country on Oct 24 came from an X account — @adamlanza222.

"The account holder's message said that he had placed bombs on all the aircraft, and the flight numbers were mentioned,” according to him.

Three flights — two of IndiGo and one of Akasa Air — operating in the Pune sector were among 80 flights, which received threats.

Pune airport director Santosh Dhoke was quoted as saying only one aircraft was sanitized in the city.

“Threats were issued to IndiGo's Pune-Jodhpur and Kolkata-Pune planes, and Akasa Air's Pune to Kolkata flights via social media,” Dhoke said.

The airlines did not receive any such threat on Oct 23, sources were quoted as saying.

At least 20 flights each of Air India, Vistara, and IndiGo got bomb threats while Akasa Air received the threats for 13 flights, sources were quoted as saying. Also, 5 flights each of Alliance Air and SpiceJet received the threats on Oct 24.

Meanwhile, top sources in the government were quoted as saying on Oct 24 that some people who were behind hoax bomb-threat calls targeting airlines have been traced and that action is being taken against them.

"The government has told social media companies Meta and X to share data of such hoax calls and messages made on their platforms targeting several airlines and asked them to cooperate," a senior unnamed official was quoted as saying.

"They will have to cooperate and provide data since this involves public good at large," he added.

However, the government sources did not provide any further details on where these hoax calls and messages came from and who was behind them.

A Vistara spokesperson in a statement said, "We confirm that a few of Vistara’s flights operating on Oct 24, 2024, received security threats on social media. We immediately alerted the relevant authorities and are following all security procedures as directed by them.”

“At Vistara, the safety and security of our customers, crew, and aircraft are of utmost importance,” he added.

Notably, over 250 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received bomb threats in the past 11 days. An Akasa Air spokesperson said some of its flights operating on Oct 24 have received security alerts.

"The Akasa Air Emergency Response teams are monitoring the situation and are in touch with the security and regulatory authorities. We are following all safety and security procedures in coordination with local authorities," the spokesperson said in a statement.

An IndiGo spokesperson in a statement on Oct 24 said it received security-related alerts for 20 flights.

According to him, the flights include 6E 362 — Hyderabad to Goa, — 6E 334, Kolkata to Hyderabad — 6E 235 — Kolkata to Bengaluru — 6E 236 — Bengaluru to Kolkata — 6E 11 — Delhi to Istanbul — 6E 17 — Mumbai to Istanbul — 6E 58 — Jeddah to Mumbai, and 6E 125 — Bengaluru to Jharsuguda.

Under the newly changed protocol, such mass threats from the same handle are treated as non-specific to minimize disruptions by not requiring diversions.

An Air India official was quoted as saying on Oct 24 that there were no diversions due to the threats.

“Airlines are now hoping that the people behind these threats are identified, arrested and strict action be taken against them,” the official said.

The Oct 24 threats were posted by two anonymous and unverified X accounts, which were later suspended by the social media platform, sources were quoted as saying.

“Nearly all the threats since last Monday have come through posts from such anonymous accounts, which were set up only recently and most likely for this purpose. In some cases, the threats were issued for flights that had already been operated for the day or were not scheduled to operate.” sources said.

Earlier this week, Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu said the government plans to take legislative actions to deal with rising bomb threats to airlines, including placing perpetrators of such threats on the no-fly list.