Union Minister Naidu said his department is considering changes in rules and legislation.
New Delhi: For a few months, there has been a flurry of hoax calls, messages, and emails claiming that a bomb or bombs have been planted at a public place or inside a flight. In four days, the number of flights that have received hoax bomb threats in four days crossed 30 on Thursday, October 17. This information has been shared by Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu who said that initial investigations do not point to a conspiracy and that most of the calls had been “made by minors and pranksters”.
The Mumbai Police on Wednesday, October 16, took a 17-year-old boy into custody for issuing threats to four flights on Monday, October 14, including three on international routes.
“The teenager wanted to frame one of his friends, with whom he had a dispute over money,” said the officials.
Union Minister Naidu said his department is considering changes in rules and legislation to ensure that such hoax bomb calls do not happen in the future.
“We can’t comment on a conspiracy but whatever little we have known, it (the threats) is coming from minors or some pranksters. For very little, petty things, they are trying to issue threats on social media or through phone calls. So, these are isolated incidents, there is no kind of conspiracy we can comment on,” the minister said on Thursday.
“From what we know, they are all individuals, most of them minors, who don’t understand the whole idea of what they are doing, and they are creating this kind of inconvenience,” he said adding that steps are being taken to ensure that a “strict barrier is created for people trying to do these kinds of pranks” and the Civil Aviation Department is pursuing changes in rules and legislation to achieve this.
“The police are pursuing the cases and trying to find out who is behind this. The Ministry of Home Affairs is also helping us a lot. Airlines and passengers are facing a lot of inconvenience, so we don’t want these kinds of situations to be repeated. We are ensuring action is being taken on these kinds of issues so that they don’t become a precedent for the future,” said the minister adding that the Civil Aviation Department has held meetings with airlines and security agencies as well.
The Mumbai Police has registered seven first information reports (FIRs) in connection with the threats and so has the Delhi Police.
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