Aviation safety panel meets CEOs of airlines amid hoax bomb threats

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) held a meeting with the CEOs of domestic airlines amid a series of hoax bomb threats received by flights recently.
Zulfiquar Hasan, the Director General of BCAS, met the CEOs of domestic airlines at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan in Delhi, the headquarters of Airports Authority of India.
During the meeting, Hasan assured the airlines that all security protocols and SOPs were being followed.
“Indian skies are absolutely safe. The current protocol (to deal with the situation) is robust and is being strictly followed. We reassure passengers that they should fly without any fear and in fact, fly even more,” Zulfiquar Hasan stated.
In the past few days, more than 70 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats which later turned out to be hoax calls.
On Saturday alone, more than 30 flights operated by various Indian airlines received bomb threats.
Flights of Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Vistara, SpiceJet, Star Air and Alliance Air received threats. In at least one of the flights, a note was found in the lavatory saying there was a bomb on board.
Recently, Mumbai Police, which filed multiple FIRs over such threats, detained a 17-year-old boy from Chhattisgarh in connection with threats to three flights originating from Mumbai on October 14.
Various police teams have contacted Virtual Private Network (VPN) service providers and social media platforms for information regarding the threat messages. VPNs hide IP addresses, making it difficult to track physical locations.
The Civil Aviation Ministry plans to implement stricter regulations to prevent hoax bomb threats, including placing perpetrators on the no-fly list.