Hoax bomb threats to Chennai-bound flight and Jammu Republic Day event attended by Omar Abdullah on January 26

A hoax bomb threat was issued to Chennai-bound flights ahead of Republic Day celebrations, reported PTI on Sunday. The flight was carrying 85 passengers from Kochi. After thorough checking upon landing, no explosives were found.

The hoax bomb threat was made over a phone call. 

A similar bomb threat was issued at the main Republic Day celebration venue in Jammu and Kashmir, reported PTI.

The event was scheduled to be attended by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who will unfurl the flag. The hoax bomb threat was sent from a username “Dise Lish” to the official mail accounts of various departments, including the secretary of higher education and director of higher education, on Saturday night, the report added.

Recent hoax bomb threat

On January 14, an IndiGo flight from Goa to Mumbai received a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax after security checks.

Indigo flight 6E 5101 was taken to an isolation bay, and all the passengers were evacuated after landing in Mumbai, reported PTI.

"All standard operating procedures were followed and the aircraft was positioned back to the terminal post clearance from relevant authorities," an Indigo spokesperson told PTI.

However, the number of passengers on the Mumbai-bound flight is not known yet. A hoax bomb threat was issued in a note onboard the plane. Due to the hoax threat, an emergency was declared at Mumbai airport for nearly an hour from 10:30 pm to 11:30 pm.

Issue of bomb threats

From August 2022 to November 13, nearly 1,143 hoax bomb threats were made to domestic airlines between August 2022 and November 13. Out of this number, 994 hoax bomb threats were made this year, according to government data.

“As many as 27 hoax bomb threat calls were received between August and December 2022. The number increased to 122 in 2023, while the current year alone witnessed a sharp rise, with 994 calls reported as of mid-November 2024," MP Kartikeya Sharma, the minister of state (MoS) for civil aviation Murlidhar Mohol told in the Parliament.

“The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, aviation security regulator in the country, has mandated robust protocols for handling such threats. Bomb threat contingency plan (BTCP), a detailed contingency plan, is in place to handle such threats. As a part of BTCP, every airport has a designated Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) which analyses the threat and acts accordingly”, he added.