Sky Marshals On Flights To Be Doubled Amid Growing Bomb Threats

New Delhi: The central government on Wednesday, October 16, decided to double the number of sky marshals on flights operating across the country amid the rising number of threat calls to flights in the past few days, ANI reported.

The news was confirmed by a senior official from the Ministry of Home Affairs who stated that the decision has been taken recently after an assessment of the growing threat and getting inputs from intelligence agencies.

"The fresh batch of Air Narshals will be deployed on new international routes added in sensitive category based on intelligence report. The decision was taken after several rounds of meetings will all stakeholders in aviation security," the official added.

A unit of the National Security Guard (NSG) specialised in anti-terror and anti-hijacking measures has been deployed as the 'Air Marshals' in several international and domestic routes.

Meanwhile, flights bound for Afghanistan's Kabul, Kathmandu in Nepal and several other routes in Sri Lanka and Canada have been termed as sensitive routes.

This comes as the Ministry of Civil Aviation called a high-level meeting after over 10 flights received bomb threats on social media earlier this week. 

What is Air Marshal?

An air marshal is a three-star air officer rank in the Indian Air Force. Sky Marshals are armed plainclothes security officers who travel on passenger aircraft.

In India, Sky Marshals or flight marshals were introduced back in 1999 after the hijacking of the flight Air India IC 814 in Kandahar to prevent instances of hijacking in future.

The number of sky marshals per flight ranges between two to six depending upon the threat perception.

12 Flights Receive Bomb Threats in Last 48 Hours

In the past 48 hours, 12 flights of several airlines including Air India, Air India Express, SpiceJet, Akasa Air, Air India, IndiGo, Alliance Air,  Air India Express, and Akasa Air flight received bomb threats.

On Wednesday, October 16, an Akasa Air flight QP 1335, en route from Delhi to Bengaluru, carrying 174 passengers, including 3 infants and 7 crew members, received a security alert and made a safe landing after an emergency aroused the threat of a bomb threat. 

Here's the List:

1. IndiGo's 6E 651 Mumbai-Delhi Flight was redirected to Ahmedabad. The aircraft was isolated, and all passengers were safely disembarked, an IndiGo Spokesperson said.

2. Bengaluru-bound Akasa Air flight QP 1335 had 177 persons, including 3 infants, and seven crew members on board. The flight returned to Delhi.

3. Air India Delhi-Chicago Flight

4. Dammam-Lucknow IndiGo Flight

5. Ayodhya-Bengaluru Air India Express

6. SpiceJet flight from Darbhanga to Mumbai (SG116)

7.  Akasa Air flight from Bagdogra to Bengaluru (QP 1373)

8. Alliance Air Amritsar-Dehradun-Delhi flight (9I 650)

9. Air India Express flight (IX 684) from Madurai to Singapore

10. IndiGo flight 6E1275 bound for Muscat and

11. IndiGo Flight 6E56 heading to Jeddah

12. AI119 from Mumbai to New York's JFK Airport