Bomb hoaxes bring India's aviation industry to a halt

The problem is simple: what if the boy crying wolf turns out to be an actual wolf exhausting the system's capacity to respond? More than 90 bomb threats, all hoaxes, have grounded and or disrupted flights from and within India for a week. The airline industry is at a loss to solve the problem of anonymous calls, social media, and mandatory responses.

On Saturday alone, 30 hoax threats were reported, and at least 20 more threats were made to different airlines on Sunday.

Indian aviation authorities and criminal investigators have yet to uncover the source and motive of the surge in bomb threats, which are largely being sent via email or posted through anonymous accounts on social media platforms such as X. Major Indian airlines such as Air India, Vistara, SpiceJet and IndiGo have primarily been targeted but American Airlines, Jet Blue and Air New Zealand have also had threats that led to flights being diverted. … The impact on India's airline industry has been enormous. Regulations enforce airlines to act on every threat, meaning dozens of planes have had to reroute and make emergency landings in third countries such as Turkey or Germany, or turn back to India. On Sunday, Afghanistan refused permission for a Vistara flight bound for Frankfurt to make an emergency landing after it received a bomb threat, forcing the plane to turn back to India.

Jets in the UK and Singapore escorted Indian flights last week; now the why is more clear.

The Royal Air Force scrambled RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft on Thursday, with a "sonic boom" heard over Norfolk as the jets reached supersonic speeds.A pilot on flight AIC129 from Mumbai reported a bomb threat as the plane approached Heathrow.An Air India spokesperson told the Standard: "Air India flight AI129, from Mumbai to London, received a bomb threat on social media [on Thursday]. "The aircraft landed safely at Heathrow Airport and all passengers and crew have disembarked.

Authorities reportedly arrested a minor, but the calls and threats didn't stop. It looks like they have a troll/bot problem to deal with, and maybe some level of organization.

An aviation security official who spoke to Indian media described a pattern in how the threats were being issued. "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," they said.