Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Kinjarapu Naidu on Monday said that the Centre is considering legislative action to include persons found guilty of making hoax threats to flights on the no-fly list, ANI reported.
This came after about 100 flights operated by Indian carriers received bomb threats since October 14. All turned out to be hoaxes, the minister confirmed.
“We have come to the conclusion that there are two areas that we can explore,” Naidu said. “One is an amendment in the Aircraft Security Rules…Once we catch hold of the perpetrator who is behind this [hoax threat], we want to put them in the no-fly list.”
“The second action is the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act,” Naidu added. “This is a 1982 law that deals with aspects of security in flights. It takes care of some offences, but we have to amend the law to make other offences of the kind we are dealing with cognisable.”
He said that the civil aviation ministry has held several meetings with the stakeholders, including the home ministry, to solve the problem.
NDTV reported that a high-level meeting was held by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday with the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Central Industrial Security Force, which is responsible for security at airports.
More than a dozen first information reports have been registered by the Mumbai Police and the Delhi Police in connection with the recent threats to flights.
On Wednesday, Naidu said that the Mumbai Police had arrested a minor for issuing three of the threats.
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