The civil aviation ministry plans to put in place strict norms to prevent incidents of hoax bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators on the no-fly list, a senior official said on Thursday.Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Thursday said the ministry is looking at amending civil aviation regulations to ensure strict action is taken against incidents of bomb threats to airlines.
In four days, at least 25 flights of various Indian airlines received bomb threats, including international flights, and some of them were diverted. Most of the threats have turned out to be hoaxes.
“We are taking things seriously… we will take action,” Naidu said about the bomb threats.
The official also said legal opinions are being sought with respect to making the changes in the rules.
The provisions being followed in foreign countries to deal with hoax bomb threats are also being examined by the ministry.
Further, the official said that if necessary, legislative amendments will be explored for having a strong deterrent to prevent people from making hoax bomb threats to airlines.
Currently, there are strict norms against unruly passenger behaviour onboard flights but there are no specific provisions under the aviation regulations to deal with instances where a bomb threat has come from outside sources such as social media.