Protocol tweaked amid spate of bomb threats to flights

Protocols for the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC), convened in the event of a bomb threat call to an aircraft or airport, have been tweaked to better tackle the spate of the ongoing 'random' Internet-based threats being made to various Indian airlines, official sources said Tuesday.

On Monday night, the BTAC that assembled at seven airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Pune, Mangalore, Bengaluru and Kozhikode declared as 'hoax or non-specific' bomb threat messages sent to 30 flights belonging to three carriers -- Air India, Vistara and Indigo.

The threat was assessed as 'non specific' as it was found that one X handle posted these 'bombs onboard' messages for 10 flights each of these three carriers between 10.46 and 11.42 pm.

The protocol undertaken by the BTAC has been tweaked and a fine assessment, acting on a set of new 'red flags', is being undertaken now, the sources told PTI.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the respective airline security have also been asked to ensure 'focussed' security protocols for frisking passengers, their baggage and the aircraft so that nothing is left to chance while preparing a flight, they said.

The new assessment process of the bomb threat has been brought about after the flood of such messages hit the Indian aviation ecosystem since last week affecting more than 140 flights, both domestic and international, till now, a senior aviation security officer said.

A second officer said the decision to tweak and look at threat messages at the BTAC with a refined perspective was taken following a recent meeting of various civil aviation stakeholders like the civil aviation ministry, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the CISF, airline and airport operators, intelligence agencies and the police department.

Earlier, the second officer said, if the threat message carried the specific number of the flight, such a claim was categorised 'specific' and all counter-terrorist and anti-hijack protocols were activated that included diverting or emergency landing of the target flight and subjecting the aircraft to anti-sabotage checks after landing and isolating it in a specific apron or bay, the sources said.

The passengers onboard these 'specific' declared flights were held at the terminal building till their bags and the aircraft was scanned completely and the threat declared a hoax, they said.

Now, while there will be no compromise on the security when such messages are received, some flag indicators to declare a bomb message specific or hoax have been changed by analysing the specifics of each threat and the recent trends, the sources said.

When it is established that the bomb or hijack threat message made through social media was published 'without any rationale', the BTAC will categorise it 'non specific or hoax' so that passengers and airlines crew are not harassed and their precious time is not wasted, they said, without elaborating on the specific details due to operational reasons.

There will still be some cases where a message or call will be declared 'specific' but that will not be done en masse, the sources said.

Aviation security officials said they expect that these new measures will help to ease 'some' trouble posed by these fake social media or phone call messages.

Cyber security agencies have said some of these threats are triggered from virtual private network (VPN) activated Internet connections and many such handles, especially on X, were created only a few hours or days before they posted the threats to various airlines.

As many as 20-25 such handles have been suspended or restricted till now, a cyber security official said.

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu had said on Monday that even though all the bomb threats have turned out to be hoaxes, things cannot be taken non-seriously.