NEW DELHI: The government is planning to revamp rules on the response to bomb threats against flights after a spate of hoaxes have led to widespread disruption and cascading delays. Along with heightened security screenings of passenger and cargo, including secondary ladder-point checks of hand luggage before boarding, there will be more precise assessments so that not all threat messages lead to an immediate landing and aircraft can continue their journey.Narrowing Down ‘Specific Threats’Besides this, authorities are also working with virtual private network (VPN) providers to trace perpetrators, they said.Top Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) officials met CEOs of Indian airlines in an emergency huddle over the weekend to discuss the matter.“Most of the threats over the last few days have emerged on social media platforms,” said a person aware of developments. “The pattern is… a single anonymous handle posts multiple threats within a few hours and then it is deleted.”It was therefore decided that the definition of “specific threat” should be narrowed. “While every such threat should be reported to Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC), the condition under which an emergency landing is required will be more stringent,” the person said. “The process of determining the threat by BTAC will be made faster and unless some solid evidence is found, the aircraft can continue towards the destination.”Along with this, there will be more checks for luggage and hand baggage so that the BTAC can be assured about the safety of the aircraft, he said.MULTIPLE MESSAGES FROM ONE ACCOUNTCurrently, the response procedure stipulates that any message or call with a flight number is considered a specific threat. According to BCAS protocol, the aircraft is then required to land at the nearest possible airport, after which it is inspected.This is set to change with the emergence of multiple threats being delivered through a single, anonymous social media account. Security agencies are of the view that once a particular threat is found to be a hoax, similar messages from that account need not be treated as specific and the aircraft can continue to its destination.114404468For instance, on Sunday, a single social media account delivered over 18 threat messages after which the account was suspended. But most flights continued their journey with the planes being searched after landing at the destination.In the past few days, more than 70 Indian aircraft have received bomb threats, leading to diversions. An Air India flight to Chicago had to land in a remote airfield in Canada while a Vistara plane to London was forced to go to Frankfurt so the aircraft could be checked.The Ministry of Home Affairs has also asked local police units and cybercrime units to act more swiftly against such accounts.A senior security agency official said in most cases, the threats are issued using a virtual private network (VPN), masking the IP address.“We are in touch with VPN providers to decrypt the identity,” he said.
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