New Delhi/Mumbai: The trend of domestic airlines receiving bomb threats continued for a fourth day, with several flights targeted Thursday, with authorities suspending or blocking about 10 social media accounts for posting threats, sources said official.

Of the flights that were threatened on Thursday, four were those of Air India Express, two of Vistara and one of Indigo. Air India said “a number” of its flights had also been the subject of bomb threats, although it did not specify the number.

“A number of Air India flights today received a security threat on social media. These have been duly reported to the regulatory agencies and all laid down procedures have been strictly followed as per the agencies’ guidelines “All flights made a safe landing. Air India is committed and gives top priority to the safety and security of its passengers and crew,” an Air India official said. .

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the ministry was considering changing the regulations to ensure strict action. When asked if there was a conspiracy behind the bomb threats, he replied: “all we know now are individuals, minors…and pranksters.” One of the Air India flights that faced threat was its Mumbai-London flight. The Royal Air Force dispatched a Typhoon fighter jet to escort the flight and it landed safely at London’s Heathrow Airport.

“We can confirm that RAF Typhoon Quick Reaction Alert fighter jets from RAF Coningsby were launched this afternoon to investigate a civilian aircraft,” a Royal Air Force spokesperson said.

After an uneventful interception, the plane was released to continue its route to its initial destination under the direction of civil air traffic control, the spokesperson said. Furthermore, the spokesperson said the incident was now being handled under the control of civil authorities.

Meanwhile, official sources said that around 10 social media accounts that issued bomb threats against several airliners this week have been suspended or blocked by cybersecurity agencies so far.

The sources told PTI that the credentials were “analyzed” by a joint team of cybersecurity, aviation security and intelligence agencies, following which orders were issued to suspend them as they continued to issue “insane” threats.

About ten social networks, the majority of them on operations on domestic and international routes, the sources said.

The agencies also found common lines and words used in these fake threats like “bombs”, “blood will spill everywhere”, “explosive devices”, “this is not a joke” and “you will all die” and “rakhwa bomb”. dia hai” (Hindi for bomb was placed), among others.

Since Monday, as many as 31 flights of various Indian airlines have received bomb threats, including international flights, and some of them were diverted by these threatening messages posted on social media. Most of the threats turned out to be hoaxes.

The sources cited above said that cybersecurity agencies, apart from registering police FIRs in each of these cases, have strengthened ‘cyber patrols’ on social media and the dark web to check possible links or the trends with which threats are published, leading to the grounding or diversion of the aircraft.

The online surface is being explored to find the master email record and geographic locations of these threat-emitting identifiers, some of which may originate from foreign sites, the sources said.

These details are shared with jurisdictional police departments, they said. These false threats have resulted in inconvenience for hundreds of airline passengers and crew, apart from security agencies. They have weighed heavily on airlines’ logistics and operational costs, officials said.

On Thursday, a Civil Aviation Ministry official said the ministry plans to put in place strict standards to prevent incidents of bomb threats against airlines, including placing perpetrators on the ban list of flight.

Minister Naidu said the ministry was considering amending civil aviation regulations to ensure strict action in such cases. “We take this seriously…we will act.” A 17-year-old minor boy from Chhattisgarh was arrested by the Mumbai Police in connection with the threats posted on X targeting three flights from Mumbai on October 14.

The officials said the ministry was also reviewing arrangements followed in foreign countries to deal with such fake bomb threats.

Additionally, the official said that if necessary, legislative amendments would be explored to act as a strong deterrent and prevent people from making false bomb threats against airlines.

Responding to a question during his weekly MEA briefing here, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “In recent days, we have been witnessing bomb threats. Bomb threats are a very serious problem. One of our Air India flights was also grounded. Several other planes were also grounded. received similar threats. “Our agencies, the Interior Ministry, are looking into the matter, and some arrests have been made, and FIRs have also been filed. We hope that there will be strong action against these people,” he said. he declared.

Currently, there are strict norms against unruly behavior of passengers on board flights, but there are no specific provisions in aviation regulations to deal with cases where a bomb threat comes from outside sources such as social media.

Currently, action against false bomb threats is taken by the police under criminal law.

(This report was published as part of the union’s auto-generated thread. Other than the title, no changes were made to the copy by ABP Live.)