Indian aviation industry: Ahead of the busiest annual travel season in India, more than 400 hoax bomb threats have triggered domestic and international travel chaos during the past two weeks, with Indian airlines grounding and diverting planes and incurring huge financial losses.

Some flights were escorted to safety by fighter jets as the unprecedented wave of bogus threats caused disruption to scores of flights and India’s air travel industry. The threats created panic among air passengers, authorities said.

Heightened security measures were enforced at most airports shortly after the first spate of threats surfaced in the second week of October. Investigating agencies quickly began probes to trace and determine the sources.

India’s junior civil aviation minister, Murlidhar Mohol, told local media that most of the hoax bomb threats originated from outside the country.

“Up to 80% of the threats this month came from abroad. Police in different states are investigating some threats that originated in India,” Mohol said on October 23.

On October 17, police in Mumbai arrested a 17-year-old boy for allegedly posting bomb threats to four flights on X, formerly Twitter. Police also questioned another minor as a suspect in the cases of the threats to airlines, it was reported.

On Saturday, a 25-year-old man was arrested in New Delhi for emailing hoax bomb threats to some Indian airlines and to Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Fresh threats, however, continued to arrive largely via emails and through anonymous social media accounts on platforms like X and Meta, authorities said.

On Sunday, fresh hoax bomb threats targeted at least 50 flights of Indian airlines.

On Monday, threats affected more than 60 flights across multiple Indian airlines.

Although Indian airlines like Air India, IndiGo, Spicejet and Vistara have been mostly targeted by the hoax threats, American Airlines and Air New Zealand have also received threats since the second week of October.

Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu deemed the burst of economic harassment and threats a "serious concern” even if the threats of violence seemed to be hoaxes.

“The safety and security of the people are the foremost aspect. … Those responsible for the threats would be identified and duly prosecuted,” Naidu said on October 21.

The Indian government was planning to introduce stricter legislative measures to tackle the growing trend of bomb threats, including a law to categorize such threat-making as a criminal offense with the accused facing prosecution and the offenders being placed on no-fly lists, Naidu said.

On Saturday, India sent a warning to social media platforms, including X, calling the spread of the threats "dangerously unrestrained."

In a statement, Indian authorities warned the social media platforms of “consequential action as provided under any law” if they do not comply with the “prompt removal of misinformation.”

“The instances of malicious acts, in the form of hoax bomb threats to such airlines, lead to a potential threat to the public order and security of the state," the statement said. "Such hoax bomb threats, while affecting a large number of citizens, also destabilizes the economic security of the country.”

Hoax bomb threats are not a new trend in India. In recent years, some airports and airlines have received similar bogus threats. But their frequency in the past two weeks has been unprecedented, leading to significant responses from authorities and investigators.

The police have managed to trace only three persons in India who are accused of sending around a dozen such threats over the past two weeks. Investigators are yet to determine who sent more than 96% of this month’s threats. The investigators reported that by tracking IP addresses some of the threats appeared to have originated from Germany and the United Kingdom.

Airlines, passengers suffer

India’s aviation industry has been massively impacted by the bomb threats. Following international protocols, the airlines had to act on every threat. Dozens of international flights originating from India were diverted and some made emergency landings in third countries such as Canada, Germany or Turkey.

Sanjay Lazar, an aviation professional, told VOA that protocol requires each bomb threat to be treated with the “utmost seriousness.” He says the threats lead to financial losses and substantial inconveniences for airline companies and passengers.

“An aircraft on the ground is evacuated and taken to a remote bay, then the bomb squad checks it, security sanitizes it, and it takes three to four hours for an entire process to be completed. This costs money, both in man hours wasted and additional man hours and costs spent in the checks and more importantly, in the reduced utilization of the aircraft,” said Lazar, the CEO of Avialaz Consultants, an aviation consultancy firm.

“It also brings about wastage of pilots and crew duty time limits, which entails fresh crew in case of long delays. It also costs airlines by way of passenger meals and, in some cases, hotel accommodation.”

Air India said that on October 15, its flight from New Delhi to Chicago with 211 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing in Iqaluit, a remote northern city in Canada, following a threat. A Canadian Air Force aircraft later transported the passengers to Chicago.

On October 20, Afghanistan refused permission for an emergency landing to a Frankfurt-bound Vistara flight after it received a bomb threat. The flight had to return to India.

In two separate incidents, around the middle of the month, authorities in the U.K. and Singapore had to send fighter jets to escort two Air India flights that had received bomb threats, authorities said.

The investigators said that the motive behind the threats had yet to be determined.

Lazar, the aviation expert, said the threats may be driven by a ‘’malicious intent’’ to invoke chaos and fear among persons traveling to and from India, and cause economic damage.

"The miscreants may want to create huge losses for airlines and inconveniences for the general public. Their actions would also show India in a poor light," he said.

Lazar described the threats as "cyber terrorism," and that the government needs to enforce laws "to the fullest" to punish the perpetrators.

"India should ensure that, like the U.S., hoax bomb threats are treated as a federal offense, are investigated the way FBI does and causes mandatory jail time for those involved," he said. VOA/SP