22 august 2024 : A complete emergency situation was declared at Thiruvananthapuram airport on Thursday due to a bomb threat concerning an Air India flight arriving from Mumbai.
The aircraft touched down at approximately 8:00 AM and was subsequently directed to an isolation area, with all passengers safely evacuated by 8:44 AM.
The pilot reported the threat around 7:30 AM as the plane approached Thiruvananthapuram airport. There were 135 individuals on board, and further information regarding the source of the threat is still awaited, according to PTI.
In response to the pilot’s communication, a full emergency was initiated at the airport at 7:36 AM. Fortunately, there has been no impact on lives, and airport operations remain unaffected, as reported.
However, details regarding the origin of the threat and additional information are still pending.
An Air India spokesperson stated, “A specific security alert was detected on Air India flight AI657 during its cruise from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram on August 22. The flight has landed safely in Thiruvananthapuram and has been parked in a remote bay for mandatory security checks. All passengers and crew disembarked without incident.”
On June 17, a 13-year-old boy was apprehended for allegedly sending an email to Delhi Airport, falsely claiming that a bomb was planted on a flight bound for Dubai.
An emergency was declared by airport authorities upon receiving the email, resulting in heightened security measures at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani reported that the boy sent the email “just for fun,” having been influenced by news of another teenager who had made a hoax bomb threat call shortly before.
The frequency of hoax bomb threats targeting airports and hospitals has risen recently. On June 18, 41 airports, including those in Jaipur, Chennai, and Varanasi, received bomb threats via email, prompting extensive anti-sabotage checks that lasted for several hours, ultimately revealing all threats to be false.
Earlier, around 60 hospitals across Mumbai had also received hoax emails about bombs kept in their premises. Mumbai police had said this included both private and public hospitals and all emails were sent using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to the hospital’s public mail-id’s.
Hoax bomb threats and messages disrupt flight schedules and also require a thorough inspection of all passengers, their luggage and the entire aircraft. Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had proposed a five-year flying ban for those found guilty of such acts.