An unverified social media account on platform X has sparked panic by issuing bomb threats to more than 45 Indian airline flights since Friday night. The account, @adamlanza111, initially targeted 12 flights on Friday and by Saturday it had threatened 34 more, The Indian Express said in a report.
The hoax bomb scare spree by the social media account has disrupted flights, airport operations and has concerned security providers at airports. It had started with Indian carriers but now the account is issuing bomb threats to international airlines like American Airlines, JetBlue and Air New Zealand.
The account, active until Saturday afternoon, has since been suspended by X. It seemed to be recently created, a common practice seen in case of social media accounts involved in issuing fake threats.
On Saturday, several Indian airlines, including Air India, Vistara, IndiGo, Akasa Air, SpiceJet, Alliance Air and Star Air, were hit with bomb threats from the same social media account.
Most carriers faced threats targeting five of their flights, while Star Air had four flights affected.
Some of the planes already in the air declared a general emergency after receiving the threats.
The report by the Indian Express said that the account’s threat messages read something like this: “There are bombs placed onboard 5 of your planes…No one will make it out alive. Hurry up and evacuate the plane”.
Notably, while some of these flights were airborne when the threats were posted, a few had already been operated.
As many as 24 flights of Indian airlines received bomb threats on Sunday, according to sources.
IndiGo, Vistara, Akasa Air and Air India and Akasa Air are among the airlines that received bomb threats, including international flights, they added.
Six flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and Air India received the threats.
So far this week, more than 90 flights have received bomb threats and most of them have turned out to be hoaxes.
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