A Minor Held for Issuing Bomb Threats to Flights, His Father being Questioned

NEW DELHI, Oct 16: In a shocking revelation solving the mystery of series of hoax bomb threats to flights, a minor has been taken into custody by the Mumbai Police over a series of bomb threats being issued to various airlines since Monday leading to some flights being diverted, including one to a remote airport in Canada.

The threats were allegedly issued because the boy wanted to frame one of his friends, with whom he had a dispute over money. The 17-year-old boy, a school dropout from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, and his father had been summoned by the Mumbai Police on Tuesday. While he has been taken into custody and is being taken to a remand home, his father is still being questioned, police sources said. The teenager allegedly created a handle on X in the name of the friend with whom he had a dispute and posted bomb threats from it.

At least 12 threats have been issued, starting with four on Monday, and the Mumbai Police has registered three first information reports (FIRs). The teenager has currently been taken into custody in connection with the first FIR, which is about Monday’s threats.

Police said on Monday the boy had issued hoax threats to four flights, three of which were international flights. Of these, two were delayed, including Air India flight AI 119 from Mumbai to New York, which was diverted to New Delhi, and one had to be cancelled.

At least seven flights were impacted on Tuesday, including Air India flight AI 127 from Delhi to Chicago, which was diverted to the Iqaluit airport in Canada. IndiGo flight 6E 98 from Damman in Saudi Arabia to Lucknow made an emergency landing in Jaipur and threats were received by Air India Express, Akasa Air and Alliance Air as well.

Tuesday’s threats were issued from an X handle which began posting on the social media platform in the afternoon. The hoax calls continued on Wednesday, with a New Delhi-Bengaluru Akasa Air flight (QP 1335) returning to the capital and Indigo’s Mumbai-Delhi flight 6E 651 being diverted to Ahmedabad.

The Delhi Police has also registered several FIRs in connection with the threats and the issue came up in a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on transport on Wednesday. Sources said aviation officials had told the MPs who were part of the panel that they had a few “critical leads” and some suspects had been identified.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu also held a meeting with officials from his department and aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Senior officials from an airline said such hoax calls have a strong impact on finances but they have no option but to take them seriously even by causing great inconvenience to the passengers.

(Manas Dasgupta)