Over 100 hoax calls about bomb threats in flights, airports received in 4 yrs: Govt

NEW DELHI: More than a hundred hoax calls about bomb threats in flights and airports in the country were received in the last four years, the government said today.

Nearly half of these calls were made in 2016 alone, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told the Lok Sabha today.

There were 14 hoax calls in 2014. This figure grew to 34 in 2015. The number of hoax calls in 2016 stood at 54. This year, so far, there have been three such calls, he said.


The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has been seeking stricter punishment, like life imprisonment, for such callers under Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act.

Under this law, life imprisonment can be awarded for communicating "such information which he knows to be false so as to endanger the safety of an aircraft in flight" and for disrupting "any service at the airport, endangering or threatening to endanger safety at that airport".