Bomb threats to airlines: Govt plans legislative actions; mulls placing perpetrators in no-fly list

New Delhi | The government is planning legislative actions to deal with bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators in the no-fly list, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Monday and asserted that efforts are being taken to tackle the situation without compromising passengers' safety and security.

Amendments are being proposed to The Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act (SUASCA), 1982 whereby the perpetrators could be arrested and probe can be initiated without a court order for offences when an aircraft is on the ground.

Nearly 100 flights have received bomb threats in one week, with at least 8 of them getting diverted, and also causing hardship to hundreds of passengers as well as sending security agencies into a tizzy.

The civil aviation ministry is planning to amend the aircraft security rules as well as SUASCA. Currently, the aviation norms mainly pertain to dealing with in-flight offences.

At a briefing in the national capital, Naidu said the aircraft security rules will be amended to strengthen them and once the perpetrator of a bomb threat to a flight is caught, the person will be placed in the no-fly list.

SUASCA deals with many offences such as those committed at airports, onboard an aircraft and disruption to air navigation facilities.

While it mentions about offences that happen in-flight, the minister said the Act also has to cover offences on the ground and at airports also.

Most of the bomb threats, which later turned out be hoaxes, were issued through social media.

"We are trying to make amendments and the legal team has worked on it... We need consultations with other ministries also... we are definitively pushing forward to have changes in the Act also so that it addresses offences that happen when the flight is on the ground and also make it cognisable offence," he said.

Cognisable offences are those in which the accused can be arrested and an investigation can be initiated by the police without the order of a court.

Responding to a query, Naidu said, "I want to do it (amendments) as soon as possible... we have put the amendments together. Let the other ministries also give their opinions".

Over the last seven days, eight flights were diverted due to bomb threats.

"The situation is dynamic. The ministry and BCAS teams are assessing the situation case by case such as what kind of threats...," Naidu said.

To a query on whether there is a conspiracy behind the threats, the minister said let a thorough investigation happen and till then, there is no point in commenting on it.

"Without investigation, we cannot put out any pattern... let us wait for the completion of investigation," he added.

There are multiple meetings happening at multiple levels and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is interacting with Ministry of Home Affairs on a continuous basis, the minister said.

Emphasising that all entities, including the civil aviation and home ministries, are working together, Naidu said flights getting bomb threats is a "very sensitive situation".

Asked whether the BCAS and BTAC (Bomb Threat Assessment Committee) have become selective in deciding which bomb threats to flights are specific and non-specific, Naidu said they are coming up with different processes so that it is easier to address these kind of situations from the authorities' side.

"Not saying that we are easing out the processes... we are keeping ourselves dynamic and not rigid... assessing and learning from what is happening. Everything is taken on case-by-case basis. Based on our learning, we are trying to assess the situation," the minister said.

Possibilities of whether there can be any better way to deal with the situation are being looked at so that less inconvenience is caused to passengers as sometimes protocols are very rigid, he said. "We are continuously talking to law enforcement agencies. We are pushing to speed up the process."

"While we are trying to efficiently tackle the situation, we are not compromising on the safety and security," Naidu said.

Even though bomb threats are hoax, things cannot be taken non-seriously, the minister said and stressed security has already been enhanced at airports. "There is 10 per cent more checking at security check points... we have increased (the number of) CCTV cameras so that airports get monitored more thoroughly," he added.

On Sunday alone, there were bomb threats to at least 25 flights operated by Indian carriers.