Over 25 flights receive bomb threats on Friday

More than 25 domestic and international flights operated by Indian carriers received bomb threats on Friday, according to sources.

In 12 days, more than 275 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received hoax bomb threats. Most of the threats were issued through social media.

On Thursday, over 70 flights received bomb threats.

An IndiGo spokesperson said 7 of its flights, including 6E 87 from Kozhikode to Dammam, got security-related alerts.

The sources in the know said around 7 flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet got the threats while 6 flights of Air India received the threats.

IndiGo’s six other flights -- 6E 2099 (Udaipur to Delhi), 6E 11 (Delhi to Istanbul), 6E 58 (Jeddah to Mumbai), 6E 17 (Mumbai to Istanbul), 6E 108 (Hyderabad to Chandigarh) and 6E 133 (Pune to Jodhpur) -- received the threats.

“Flight 6E 2099, operating from Udaipur to Delhi, received a bomb threat. Following security agency guidelines, the aircraft was redirected to the isolation bay before take-off and standard operating procedures were followed. All passengers were safely disembarked,” the airline spokesperson said in a statement.

The government has asked social media platforms Meta and X to share data about hoax bomb threat messages to airlines and has started identifying those behind such activities.

Earlier this week, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the government plans to take legislative actions to deal with instances of bomb threats to airlines, including placing perpetrators of such threats on the no-fly list.