The central government is keen on taking stringent steps to curb the rising cases of hoax bomb threats to airline services, especially those that have happened in the last week or so.
According to top sources in the ministry of civil aviation, there were multiple rounds of meetings with different stakeholders, including security agencies. The ministry may propose that offenders will be put on the no-fly list. Under this, such a person will be barred from flying any airline.
Can you put such a person on the no-fly list? Or does it have to be an accused, who is chargesheeted for such an offence? All matters are under consideration and legal opinion is also being sought. The Centre is expected to announce some form of mechanism in the next week to 10 days, sources said.
Sources further said certain tweaks are also being proposed in the existing laws governing air travel and airline safety. They told News18 that the government is actively considering this, and the proposal is being vetted by the ministry of law and justice.
They said the government may bring an ordinance soon and bring it before Parliament in the upcoming session. Throughout this week, civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu has been holding multiple review meetings with stakeholders and concerned departments like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), home ministry among others.
On Wednesday (October 16), ministry officials appeared before the standing committee and, when asked about the recent episodes of fake calls and bomb threats, they said a detailed review was underway and that passenger safety was paramount.
An Akasa Air flight to Bengaluru was diverted to Delhi after a hoax call on Wednesday, making it the 11th such incident this week. Other flights that received such threats include Air India Delhi-Chicago, Air India Express Ayodhya-Bengaluru, Air India Madurai-Singapore, and IndiGo Dammam-Lucknow.
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