BREAKING: 13 Flights of Air India Receive Bomb Threat Messages

New Delhi: The string of bomb scares targeting domestic airlines continued on Tuesday, with 13 Air India flights receiving threat messages. Yesterday, 30 domestic and international flights operated by Indian airlines received bomb threats , with three Jeddah-bound IndiGo flights getting diverted to airports in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The flights of IndiGo, Vistara and Air India were among those that received the bomb threats, sources in the know said.13 Flights of Air India Receive Bomb Threat Messages In little over a week, more than 120 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats.Speaking to reporters, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the ministry is looking to amend regulations to ensure strict action is taken. Asked whether there is a conspiracy behind the bomb threats, he said, "whatever we know now are that of individuals and minors...and pranksters." One of the Air India flights that received a threat was its Mumbai-London flight. The Royal Air Force scrambled a typhoon fighter jet to escort the flight and it landed safely at London's Heathrow airport. "We can confirm that RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were launched this afternoon, to investigate a civilian aircraft," a Royal Air Force spokesperson said.Following an uneventful interception the aircraft was released to continue to its original destination under the direction of civilian air traffic control, the spokesperson said. Further, the spokesperson said the incident is now being handled under the control of civilian authorities.Meanwhile, official sources said about 10 social media handles that issued hoax bomb threats to multiple airliners this week have been suspended or blocked by cyber security agencies till now.The sources told PTI that the handles were "analysed" by a joint team of cyber, aviation security and intelligence agencies following which orders were issued to suspend them as they continued to issue "mindless" threats.Around 10 social media handles, majority of them on X, have been suspended or blocked since Monday, when these hoax bomb and terrorist attack threats started being sent to virtually all the Indian airliners for both their domestic and international route operations, the sources said.The agencies have also found some common lines and words used in these fake threats like "bombs", "blood will spread everywhere", "explosive devices", "this is not a joke" and "you will all die" and "bomb rakhwa dia hai" (Hindi for bomb has been placed) among others.Beginning Monday, as many as 31 flights of various Indian airlines received bomb threats, including international flights, and some of them were diverted by these social media posted threat messages. Most of the threats have turned out to be hoaxes.The sources quoted above said that cyber security agencies, apart from getting police FIRs registered in each such case, have enhanced 'cyber patrolling' on the social media and the dark web to check for possible linkages or trends where threats are being posted, leading to grounding or diversion of the aircraft.The online surface is being scratched to find the primary email registration and geographical locations of these threat-issuing handles, some of which are possibly being prompted from overseas locations, the sources said.These details are being shared with jurisdictional police departments, they said. These fake threats have led to inconveniencing hundreds of passengers and airline crew apart from security agencies. They have taken a heavy toll on airline logistics and operational costs, the officials said.On Thursday a civil aviation ministry official said that the ministry plans to put in place strict norms to prevent incidents of hoax bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators on the no-fly list.Minister Naidu said the ministry is looking at amending civil aviation regulations to ensure strict action in such cases. "We are taking things seriously... we will take action." minor boy of 17 years of age from Chhattisgarh has been detained by the Mumbai Police in connection with the threats posted on X targeting three flights originating from Mumbai on October 14.Officials said that the ministry is also examining provisions followed in foreign countries to deal with such hoax bomb threats.Further, the official said that if necessary, legislative amendments will be explored for having a strong deterrent to prevent people from making hoax bomb threats to airlines.

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BREAKING: 13 Flights of Air India Receive Bomb Threat Messages

A total of 13 flights of Air India on Tuesday received bomb threat messages.

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