NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry, concerned over the recent string of hoax threats about bombs on flights, is taking a fresh look at old suggestions of the Bureau of Civil Aviation and Security (BCAS) such as putting individuals behind hoax threats on ‘no-fly’ list for five years and revisiting the Aircraft Act, 1934 – proposed to be replaced by the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, passed in August by the Lok Sabha – to provide for a specialised legal regime to deal with hoax threats.
Sources said BCAS had last year suggested including special provisions in the Aircraft Act to deal more firmly with hoax bomb calls and messages. Its other key suggestion, made in July this year, was to amend the DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements to put hoax callers on “no-fly” list for five years.
As of now, the rules cover only unruly passengers travelling or boarding aircraft, not non-passengers, and leave it to the airline to decide on duration of the ‘no-fly’ ban. BCAS had said Indian Penal Code (IPC) provisions are not deterrent enough in the light of the serious impact hoax calls and messages, mostly from pranksters, tend to have on flight schedules and the related losses, besides the inconvenience caused to the passengers and public.
BCAS is said to have submitted that introducing a dedicated provisions in the Aircraft Act, 1934, against hoax calls, including stricter bail and stern punishment, would keep pranksters from making that hoax call or posting a false bomb threat.
The Bill to amend the Aircraft Act, 1934 – the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024 – was passed by the Lok Sabha in August this year. The bill, however, did not incorporate the BCAS suggestion to include a dedicated legal framework to deal with hoax bomb threats to flights.
Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said Thursday “a strict barrier” was being created for “people trying to do these kinds of pranks” and hinted at changes in rules and legislation to achieve this.