Indian airlines have been the target of nearly 1,000 bomb hoaxes in 2024 so far, with over 600 fake threats made in October alone, according to a government minister.
On November 27, 2024, India’s deputy civil aviation minister Murlidhar Mohol told the country’s parliament that as of November 14, 2024, there had been a huge rise in bomb threats compared with previous years.
According to Times of India, Mohol said: “As many as 27 hoax bomb threat calls were received between August and December 2022. The number increased to 122 in 2023, while the current year alone witnessed a sharp rise, with 994 calls reported as of mid-November 2024.”
Police found that none of the bomb hoaxes has led to evidence of a genuine threat being discovered at airports or on any aircraft.
Larger airlines such as Air India, IndiGo, Vistara and Akasa were understood to have been targeted with the greatest number of hoaxes.
Kerala: Visuals of the #AirIndia flight AI657 which received a #bombthreat today.
The flight has landed safely at Thiruvananthapuram Airport and has been parked in a remote bay for the mandatory checks by security agencies. All passengers and crew disembarked safely. pic.twitter.com/RbSRjrWcdw
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 22, 2024
In October 2024, IndiGo received at total of 162 bomb threats, while Air India received 154, Vistara 150, Akasa 67, SpiceJet 28, Alliance Air 24, and other airlines 29, according to Times of India, based on evidence presented in parliament.
In October 2024, an Air India flight that had just departed from Mumbai bound for New York was forced to divert to Delhi following a bomb threat posted on social media.
In August 2024, an emergency was declared on an Air India flight from Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM) to Trivandrum International Airport (TRV) after a bomb threat was found on a note in the aircraft’s lavatory.
Back in June 2024, an IndiGo Airlines domestic flight from Chennai to Mumbai landed safely after an anonymous telephone call to the carrier’s call center said that there was a bomb onboard the flight.