5-Year No-Fly Ban for Hoax Bomb Threats, Proposes Aviation Security Chief

New Delhi: Lately, airports, schools, hospitals and numerous institutions in the national capital and other major cities have been received hoax bomb threats. Amid the spurt in hoax bomb threats, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has now recommended a five-year flying ban for those responsible.

Issuing hoax threats to flights, airports, or any aviation-related facility could soon result in pranksters being placed on the no-fly list for five years. BCAS Director General Zulfiquar Hasan announced that the increasing frequency of such incidents has led the agency to propose this measure against those found guilty. On the same day, numerous airports received threat messages about hidden explosives.

Hasan said that so far six individuals have been arrested for issuing bomb threats that were later determined to be fake. He added that investigations are ongoing in many other similar cases.

Airports, particularly those in major metropolitan areas, have been struggling with hoax threats, causing significant inconvenience to passengers and necessitating searches and evacuation operations by authorities.

Yesterday, 41 airports nationwide received bomb threat emails, which were found to be hoaxes after thorough searches.

Airports in cities such as Mumbai, Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore, and Jabalpur were among those targeted by the hoax threats.

According to the news agency PTI, the emails received by the airports contained an identical message: "Hello, there are explosives hidden in the Airport. The bombs will soon explode. You will all die."

At Chennai airport, a flight bound for Dubai was delayed for hours following the hoax threat. It was eventually cleared for takeoff after officials found nothing suspicious on the plane.

In April, several airports received similar bomb threats.

Last month, top schools in Delhi also received threatening emails. Additionally, in Mumbai, over 60 hospitals and schools were targeted with emails threatening bomb blasts.