Union Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu announced on Sunday (october 27) that the Centre is considering measures to ban individuals responsible for hoax bomb threats from flying.
Speaking to reporters after inaugurating two flights between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, he highlighted the government’s collaboration with international agencies, law enforcement, and the Intelligence Bureau to combat these fake threats.
“We are also taking the support of international agencies, law enforcement agencies, the Intelligence Bureau to prevent these. We are planning to bring changes to two civil aviation laws. Those who resort to these kinds of activities will be punished severely and imposed a penalty. We are also taking steps to ban such persons from flying. We will announce them in the coming days,” Naidu stated.
As of Sunday, over 350 flights operated by Indian airlines have received hoax bomb threats in the past 14 days, with most of these threats originating from social media. Naidu also mentioned that investigations into these incidents are underway, and cooperation from the social media platform ‘X’ is being sought.