Over 25 flights get hoax bomb threats

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

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

Sources said around seven flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet got the threats while six Air India flights 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 isolation bay before take-off and standard operating procedures were followed. All passengers were safely disembarked,” the airline spokesperson said.

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

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.