Centre to double Air Marshals on 'sensitive flights' as bomb threats rise

Unit of the National Security Guard specialized in anti-terror and anti-hijacking measures is deployed as Air marshals in mainly international routes and a few sensitive domestic routes

With the growing number of calls claiming a threat to flights in the recent past, the central government has decided to double the number of sky marshals on flights originating from airports across the country.

A senior official from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) confirmed that the decision to double the number of Air marshals has been taken recently after assessment of the growing threat and getting inputs from intelligence agencies.

"The fresh batch of Air Narshals will be deployed on new international routes added in sensitive category based on intelligence report. The decision was taken after several rounds of meetings will all stakeholders in aviation security," the officer added.

A unit of the National Security Guard (NSG) specialized in anti-terror and anti-hijacking measures is deployed as Air marshals in mainly international routes and a few sensitive domestic routes.

Sky Marshals are armed plainclothes security officers who travel on passenger aircraft.

In India, Sky Marshals or flight marshals were introduced in 1999 after the hijacking of the flight Air India IC 814 in Kandahar to prevent hijacking in future. Sky marshals travel with loaded firearms/weapons in passenger (commercial) aircraft and can also take action in the aircraft to prevent hijacking.

As per reports, flights bound for Kabul in Afghanistan Kathmandu in Nepal, Colombo in Sri Lanka, certain routes in Canada and a few other routes in Middle East countries are termed sensitive routes. The number of sky marshals per flight ranges from two to six, depending upon the threat perception.

Ministry of Civil Aviation has called a high-level meeting after more than 10 bomb threats have been received on social media on Monday and Tuesday.

According to the sources, Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu on Monday held a meeting with the Bureau of Civil Aviation, CISF and other senior officials in airport security over the bomb threats.