7 AI Express, 5 Air India Flights Get Bomb Threats Today as Govt 'Closely Monitors' Situation

New Delhi:  Seven Air India Express and five Air India flights were subjected to bomb threats, on Thursday, October 17 contributing to widespread panic caused by a series of hoax calls targeting multiple airlines since past 2 days. 

Four of these flights were still on the ground, while three were airborne at the time when the threats were received. 

As per the known information, one of the affected flights was the 9:30 AM service from Mumbai to Pune.

Amid continuous hoax bomb threats in past 48 hours, the Airline has decide not to do emergency landing , only inflight checks will be done.

Multiple Hoax Bomb Threats 

The government is on high alert after a series of bomb threats have affected flight operations across various Indian air carriers in the past three days.

Earlier 12 flights comprising of different airlines have received bomb threats, triggering panic among the aviation ministry, flight officials and passengers. 

Sky Marshals on Flights to be Doubled 

The central government has also 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.

US Raises Concerns 

The United States condemned any threats against commercial aviation as unacceptable, after multiple Air India flights, including those bound for Chicago and New York, received bomb threats.

One such flight from New Delhi to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing at Iqaluit Airport in Canada. Another flight from Mumbai to New York returned to New Delhi, while fighter jets were scrambled for a plane en route to Singapore. 

Earlier on Thursday, ten flights, including an Air India plane with 211 people from Delhi to Chicago, received bomb-threat messages through social media handles in the past 48 hours, prompting security agencies to reportedly undertake specific counter-terrorist drills at various airports.

This is a breaking copy, further details are still awaited.