Hoax calls to airlines: All you need to know

A surefire way of discovering faith is when your flight gets a bomb scare at 30,000 feet in the air.

On Tuesday, a Turkish Airlines plane made an emergency landing in New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport following a bomb scare, which turned out to be a hoax after a thorough security check.
 

The Airbus A330 passenger jet was carrying 134 passengers when a holidaymaker discovered the written threat and reported it to a member of the cabin crew roughly three hours into the flight.

Here is a list of some similar hoaxes in 2015 and the financial impact and response of airlines to these calls and the likely punishments for offenders

Similar Events:

On 29 March 2015, a Tokyo bound plane returned to Ataturk International Airport after a message "C-4 Cargo" was discovered by the cabin crew in the lavatory.

On 30 Mar 2015, Flight from Istanbul to Sao Paulo diverted to Casablanca after bomb scare

On April 17, 2015, a Turkish Airlines plane to Basel, carrying 151 passengers, was called back to Istanbul after a bomb threat. 

On June 25, 2015, a Ryanair jet was searched for explosives after an anonymous call warned there was a bomb on board before take-off in Poland. A bomb squad swept the plane before passengers and crew boarded the jet at Warsaw's Modlin Mazovia Airport. The Ryanair jet was to fly from Warsaw to Oslo with 168 people on board. A Ryanair spokesman later revealed that the anonymous call was a hoax. Police in Poland have detained one man in connection with the hoax. 

On June 26, 2015, a New York-bound Turkish Airlines plane with 292 passengers made an emergency landing Thursday at Copenhagen's international airport after an old camera bag, possibly forgotten by a passenger, led to a bomb scare.

On June 30, 2015, a WestJet flight with 113 passengers and five crew members going from Toronto to Saskatoon landed safely following a threat but police say a search of the aircraft found no bomb.

The next day, a bomb threat – later believed to be a hoax – prompted WestJet to divert a Vancouver-to-Toronto flight to Calgary. This was the fourth time in five days that a WestJet flight had been the subject of a threat.

Response of airlines when they get such threats

The 9/11 US terror attacks brought about significant changes in the way even idle threats are handled. 

While protocols may vary across airlines, the basic approach is the same — every threat must be taken seriously.

As soon as an airline finds out about a threat of this kind, they relay it to the flight in question, or sometimes all flights that are airborne, and those flights will then be diverted to the nearest suitable airport

The financial impact on the airline

Each diversion is an expensive proposition. By the time an airline reroutes the flight, deplanes the passengers, ensures they’re taken care of at the alternate airport, inspects the aircraft and then resumes its original course, the bill can easily run into tens of thousands of dollars, says a star. com report.

Legal consequences if someone is caught making a threat

Even an unsubstantiated threat can trigger serious penalties; a hoax can result in jail time, since the perpetrator’s actions trigger real practical and economic consequences. Issuing such a threat is seen as consistent with terrorist efforts and tactics to attack critical infrastructure.