The Indian aviation industry has been upended by a flood of fake bomb threats—causing mayhem for over a week. Wtf is going on? And should you be worried?
First, tell me all about the threats…
How it started: On Monday, October 14—three international flights received bomb threats. These included a non-stop Air India flight from Mumbai to New York. Soon after takeoff, the airline received a threat—forcing the plane to land in Delhi within two hours of takeoff.
The escalation: By Tuesday, the number of threats had jumped to 10. Again, an Air India flight to the US was among them. The plane—flying from Delhi to Chicago—received the threat 12 hours into the flight. It was forced to land in a remote Canadian town of Iqaluit. Passengers were stranded for three and a half days—until Canadian military planes carted them back to civilisation. Another Air India flight from Madurai to Singapore was escorted by two F-15SG fighter jets to Changi Airport.
The deluge: The number of bomb hoaxes had increased to 40 by late Thursday—and soared to 70 over the weekend. The total to date: 95.
What we know: right now is not very much. Most of the threats were made on anonymous handles on X—using identical language: “There are bombs placed onboard of 5 your planes… No one will make out alive. Hurry up and evacuate the plane.” A single unverified account threatened 46 flights over the weekend:
The account—@adamlanza111—posted bomb threats to 12 flights on Friday night. On Saturday, the account has so far posted bomb threats for 34 flights of Indian carriers, and has even started posting threats to overseas airlines like American Airlines, JetBlue, and Air New Zealand.
The hoaxsters used VPNs to hide their trail:
We have received the preliminary reports, and they have informed us that posts were made from three separate handles. Of these three handles, they have traced two IP addresses; two common IPs from London and Deutschland.
Just a tweet can cause this kind of chaos?
There is a standard security protocol for bomb threats. Given the potential for catastrophic damage, the aviation mantra is better safe than sorry:
We know that 99.99% of the threats will turn out to be fake. But no one wants to take a chance with the remaining 0.01% cases as well. That is why despite strict pre-departure security checks at Indian airports, we take bomb threats very seriously, knowing fully well that most will turn out to be fake.
In other words, a bomb threat is real until proven fake.
Threat assessment: Specific threats that name the flight number, date, timing of departure and arrival etc.—are taken more seriously. Each Indian airport has its own Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC)—which makes the call. Typically, the BTACs at the origin and destination will work together on a plan. If the plane is already in the air, it is diverted to a safe airport—and taken to an isolated bay. Everyone and everything—passengers, crew, luggage—is thoroughly checked.
The domino effect: A single diversion is extremely time-consuming—and wreaks havoc with the schedule:
The entire process of screening all the passengers and their baggage during such an exercise usually is extremely time consuming, keeping the passengers held-up at the airport till they get an all clear from the agencies. Apart from inconveniencing the passengers significantly, the airlines are hit hard as the affected aircraft is taken out of operations till it is cleared for operations. This forces long delays and possibly even cancellations on its planned subsequent flights as one aircraft—particularly a narrow-body plane—operates multiple flights through the day.
A key point to note: Aviation authorities have done their best to minimise passenger pain: “Only 10% of the flights were subjected to secondary checks upon the aircraft’s arrival at its destination, which included searching the plane and frisking passengers.” Most were not diverted either.
But why is it raining bomb threats?
No one knows. Some worry that it is linked to the diplomatic brawl over Canadian Sikhs/ Khalistan sympathisers (See: Hardeep Singh Nijjar). As Al Jazeera aptly puts it: “It’s a fatal combination: Sikh separatists, India, and Canada have a deadly history linked to one of the worst aviation disasters ever recorded.”
The Kanishka tragedy: On June 23, 1985, an Air India flight from Canada to India via London exploded off the Irish coast—killing all 329 people on board. It was undoubtedly a terrorist attack—committed by Khalistani extremists with Canadian links. Yet most of them went scott-free—except for one Canadian Sikh who served sentences in Canada and the UK between 1991 and 2016. The true mastermind: Babba Khalsa’s Talwinder Singh Parmar was never convicted due to “lack of evidence”:
Families of the victims have long accused Canadian authorities of not doing enough to arrest the perpetrators. In 2010, a four-year inquiry by Canadian investigators found that authorities had mishandled the investigations and that a series of errors had allowed the attacks to happen.
Kanishka deja vu? The scars of the bombing are still fresh—as is rage at the Canadians for dropping the ball. It is one reason why the current diplomatic jhagda is so heated. And it doesn’t help that Khalistani sympathisers like Gurpatwant Singh Pannun keep stirring the plot. Soon after US authorities revealed an alleged RAW plot to assassinate him, Pannun released a video invoking the Kanishka bogeyman:
We are asking the Sikh people not to fly via Air India on November 19. There will be a global blockade. On November 19, don’t travel by Air India or your life will be in danger.
This too turned out to be a hoax. That said, there is no evidence as yet that these hoaxsters are connected to separatist groups—or aping Pannun. OTOH, the timing—at the height of India-Canada tensions—is suspicious.
But what’s the point of making these threats?
At the very least, you create an environment of confusion and panic. But the sheer number wreaks very real financial damage. Consider this: The aviation industry was looking forward to a pataka festival season. Domestic flight bookings had increased by 60%—and up by 70-80% for popular international destinations such as Thailand and Georgia. Cue a flood of bomb threats—that trigger delays, cancellations, diversions and more:
Rerouting planes mid-air and rescheduling departures not only increase fuel costs but also disrupt crew schedules. In some cases, airlines must arrange overnight stays for passengers, book new landing slots, and bring in fresh crew due to duty limitations. All of this makes handling bomb threats a costly affair.
An example to note: Remember that Air India flight—from Mumbai to New York—which was diverted to Delhi? Guess what it cost to make that ‘small’ change:
The aircraft, which weighed between 340-350 tonnes with passengers, baggage, and cargo, faced a challenge as the maximum landing weight for a Boeing 777 is 250 tonnes. To land safely, the crew needed to jettison around 100 tonnes of fuel. “The fuel wastage cost alone works out to Rs 1 crore,” a senior pilot told TOI, explaining that at nearly Rs 1 lakh per tonne, the financial impact was significant.
The flight that was diverted to Iqaluit cost Air India another Rs 15-20 crore ($1.78 million to $2.37 million). Btw, even hovering in the air—while you wait to land due to delays—costs several crores. In all, the airlines bleed around Rs 3 crore ($356,848) per bomb threat.
The bottomline: All this talk of bomb threats is pretty scary. But it’s near-impossible to get a bomb on a flight these days—given the multiple layers of safety. The last confirmed real bomb threat was in 1988—when Pan Am Flight 103 crashed over Lockerbie—killing all 259 on board.
Reading list
Airways Magazine has the best, most concise overview of the chaos—better than any newspaper. Economic Times explains the financial impact of these bomb threats—in detail. Al Jazeera offers a good explainer on the Canadian context to these threats. The Print has everything you need to know about the devastating Air India crash of 1985. Indian Express has the latest on what we (don’t) know about the culprits. Also in Indian Express: A detailed look at security protocols on how to respond to these threats.
