DGCA Director Transfer: Indian airlines have faced more than 70 bomb threats in the last six days, with more than 30 flights threatened on Saturday alone. Meanwhile, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Vikram Dev Dutt has been transferred. He has been appointed Secretary of the Coal Ministry. Dutt is a 1993 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre. As per the order of the Ministry of Personnel, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of DGCA Director General Dutt as Secretary in the Ministry of Coal.
Due to the continuous threats, the civil aviation security body, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) held an emergency meeting with the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the airlines in New Delhi. This meeting was held at the office of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. In the meeting, the CEO was instructed to follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) so that the crisis arising from these threats can be handled efficiently. These repeated threats to flights have caused inconvenience to passengers and huge losses to the airlines.
Questions arising regarding foreign IP address-VPN
Officials said that in the investigation so far, IP addresses of some threats have been found to be from London, Germany, Canada and America. However, it is also believed that the threat actors are trying to hide their real location by using VPN.
Eight Indigo flights received threats
IndiGo flight 6E 58 from Jeddah to Mumbai was thoroughly investigated after receiving a bomb threat. Similarly, Mumbai-Istanbul bound flights 6E 17 and 6E 11 also received bomb threats. So far on Saturday, eight Indigo flights have received threats. Today more than 15 planes have received threats and this is the sixth consecutive day of bomb threats. In view of such increasing threats, officials have instructed airlines to remain alert and maintain coordination with all concerned parties.
