Amid a rise in the instances of hoax bomb threats to airports and airlines, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has proposed a five-year ban on flying for those who issue such threats.
Zulfiquar Hasan, Director General, BCAS, said such cases have increased in the past few months, prompting the agency to mull action against pranksters.
Mr Hasan said six people have been arrested so far for issuing bomb threats that later turned out to be hoax. Investigation is on in many more such cases, he said.
Airports, especially in metros, have been grappling with hoax threats, causing inconvenience to passengers and prompting authorities to carry out searches and evacuation operations.
41 airports across the country received bomb threat emails yesterday – which were found to be hoax after thorough searches.
The airports in Mumbai, Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore and Jabalpur were among those that received the hoax threats.
The emails received by the airports carried identical message, reported the news agency PTI. “Hello, there are explosives hidden in the Airport. The bombs will soon explode. You will all die,” the email said.
At Chennai airport, a flight bound for Dubai was delayed for hours after the hoax threat. I was cleared for the take-off after officials found nothing suspicious on the flight.
A similar bomb threat was sent to several airports in April too.
Top schools in Delhi also got threat emails last month. In Mumbai, more than 60 hospitals and schools got emails threatening bomb blasts.
