What security protocols kick in when a flight gets a bomb threat?

“We know that 99.99 per cent of the threats will turn out to be fake. But no one wants to take a chance with the remaining 0.01 per cent cases as well. That is why despite strict pre-departure security checks at Indian airports, we take bomb threats very seriously, knowing fully well that most will turn out to be fake,” said a senior official with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA).

When an aircraft receives a bomb threat, a detailed security protocol is followed, which could even include diverting the aircraft to a suitable nearby airport. After landing, the aircraft as well as passengers’ bags are subject to a thorough security inspection. The entire process involves close coordination between multiple stakeholders—from security agencies to airlines and airport operators—and can take hours to be concluded satisfactorily.

Sounding the alert

When a threat is received by the airline or an airport regarding a domestic flight that is already in the air, a meeting of the airport-specific Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) is immediately convened. Each airport has its own BTAC, whose members include representatives of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the airline concerned, and the airport operator.

The committee is usually convened at the airport from which the aircraft departed and often connects with the BTAC of the destination airport as well to decide the course of action, according to industry insiders. As the name of the committee suggests, it essentially focuses on evaluating whether a threat could be credible or not based on different criteria like specificity of details in the threat, and its timing and source.

If the committee deems the threat to be a “specific threat”, the BTAC conveys the next move that the pilots should make via the Air Traffic Control (ATC). In case of a “non-specific threat”, no immediate action is taken. Officials in the government and airlines, however, said that most threats made to specific flights are mostly deemed as specific threats—as a case of abundant precaution—which triggers a detailed security protocol.

“Based on what the committee decides, the ATC informs us of the threat and the recommended course of action. It could include returning to the airport where we departed from, heading to the destination airport, or diverting to a suitable nearby airport capable of handling the situation,” said a senior airline pilot, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

If the plane is yet to depart when the threat comes in, and the BTAC of that airport classifies it as a specific threat, the aircraft is usually moved to an isolated bay for a thorough security check.

When the threat is received for an international flight of an Indian airline that has already exited Indian airspace and is a fair distance away, the matter gets more complicated as the overseas ATCs, agencies, and committees also get involved in deciding in the course of action, which could include diversion to different airport, or priority emergency landing at the destination airport.

Security checks upon landing

Once the aircraft for which a bomb threat was received and deemed specific by the BTAC lands, it is taken to an isolated bay at the airport and all the passengers and crew members are made to deboard the aircraft at the earliest possible.

Passengers’ baggage, cargo, and catering material are also offloaded, which is followed by rescreening of the passengers, their baggage, cargo, and all other items that were offloaded. The empty aircraft is then thoroughly searched by airline, engineering and security staff. The inspections and screenings involve sniffer dogs and scanning machines, among other equipment.

If nothing suspicious is found, the aircraft is released for operations. In the eventuality that a suspicious object is found in the search and screening procedures, security personnel and bomb disposal squads present at the location get involved as necessary. Other emergency response teams, including firefighters and medical staff, are also on standby during the exercise to respond swiftly to any unfortunate incident.

Inconvenienced passengers, hassled airlines

The entire process of screening all the passengers and their baggage during such an exercise usually is extremely time consuming, keeping the passengers held-up at the airport till they get an all clear from the agencies. Apart from inconveniencing the passengers significantly, the airlines are hit hard as the affected aircraft is taken out of operations till it is cleared for operations. This forces long delays and possibly even cancellations on its planned subsequent flights as one aircraft—particularly a narrow-body plane—operates multiple flights through the day.

When aircraft are forced to divert to another airport, airlines end up bearing additional costs, which include arranging accommodation or alternate flights or transport for passengers. Often in such cases, the crew’s flight duty time limitations (FDTL) also exceed the prescribed limits, which means they cannot operate a flight without a mandatory rest period. In such instances, airlines have to arrange another set of crew to operate the flight.

The matter gets further complicated when the diversion takes place overseas to a remote airport—as it happened this week with a Chicago-bound Air India flight that had to be diverted to a small Canadian town, and last month when a Vistara flight on its way to Frankfurt was diverted to a small airport in Turkey.

In the case of the Air India flight, the stranded passengers and crew had to be transported to Chicago on board a Canadian air force plane. In the instance involving the Vistara aircraft, the airline had to dispatch another aircraft with a new set of crew to operate the remainder of the flight from Turkey to Frankfurt. In both cases, the crew of the diverted flights could not have operated the flights due to FDTL.

With the system struggling to cope with the multiple threats that came in this week, the MoCA is exploring ways to make regulations more stringent to enable harsher punishments for those behind such threats. Apart from tweaking rules under its control, the ministry is also in constant discussions with other key departments, including the home and law ministries, a senior MoCA official said Thursday.