As hoaxes mount, BCAS meets airlines; seeks minimising disruptions while ensuring safety

NEW DELHI: Hoax messages poured in on Saturday with threats being received for 30-40 flights across Indian carriers, the maximum in a day since this issue has been plaguing passengers and the aviation industry for about a week now. The sheer numbers led to a situation where a big metro airport nearly ran out of remote bays for some time where aircraft are checked following threats.“Some messages came for flights that had landed and passengers had alighted. This is crazy — over 80-90 threats in 7 days,” say sources.
Bureau of Civil Aviation Security chief Zulfiquar Hasan met CEOs of airlines on Saturday evening. It is learnt Hasan emphasised striking a balance between ensuring security, which he stressed is paramount, and also minimising passenger inconvenience & disruptions in this peak festive travel season. Despite the very high number of threats, only one — Vistara Delhi-London late Friday night was diverted to Frankfurt before being allowed to proceed to the UK — and all others operated to their destination, albeit some with delays necessitated by aircraft checks.
After the meeting, Hasan told TOI: “Indian skies are absolutely safe. The current protocol (to deal with the situation) is robust and is being strictly followed. We reassure passengers that they should fly without any fear and in fact fly even more.”
The back-to-back threats started late Friday night when a Vistara Delhi-London flight was diverted to Frankfurt. A Vistara spokesperson said: “Delhi-London UK17 on Oct 18 received a security threat on social media… a precautionary measure, pilots decided to divert to Frankfurt. Flight landed safely at Frankfurt where all mandatory checks were conducted by security agencies following which, the aircraft was cleared to conclude the journey.” Five more international flights of Vistara got threats on Saturday including Singapore-Mumbai (UK106), Mumbai-Frankfurt (UK027), Mumbai-Singapore (UK107), Delhi-Bangkok (UK121) and Mumbai-Colombo (UK131).
An Air India Newark-Mumbai flight was delayed at the origin by three hours as the plane had to be re-checked. Many other flights of AI Group got threats. IndiGo got threats for at least five flights, including Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul. Ditto for Akasa’s five domestic flights. Other airlines also saw threats for their flights.
The number kept rising during the day. At the time of filing this story on Saturday night, a Mumbai-Frankfurt flight also got a threat.
“While attempts are being made to end or minimise this menace with the Union home ministry actively involved, we have to minimise passenger convenience & disruptions while ensuring security which is of utmost importance. This is what emerged from the BCAS meeting,” said an airline official.
Airlines have made arrangements at airports to ensure passengers of delayed flights get refreshments and other basic necessities.

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