The recent surge in threat calls to various airlines is nothing but a deliberate attempt to unsettle India’s aviation sector, which is aiming to be one of the best in the world. Hundreds of threat calls being reported within a week stands as a testimony to the fact that it is nothing but a conspiracy not only to show the Indian aviation industry in poor light, but also an attempt to harm the airlines operating financially. It must be mentioned here that when a flight on air receives a threat call, the concerned airline loses crores as it incurs a lot of additional expenditures. For instance, while a big aircraft can take off nearly 350 tonnes, the maximum landing weight of an aircraft is 250 tonnes. Thus, whenever there is an interruption, the aircraft concerned has to dump tonnes of fuels, worth more than a crore. Moreover, there are landing and parking charges along with the expenses like accommodation of passengers in nearby hotels, arranging another flight to send the passengers to their destinations, etc. A rough estimate shows that the Indian aviation sector has to lose INR 3 to 5 crore per threat call. From this figure, one can easily tell that it was not an act of simple mischief, but a deliberate attempt to make India’s aviation sector bleed profusely. If this threat call culture goes uninterrupted, not only the aviation sector, but also the India economy, as a whole, will have to pay a heavy price. Foreign investors and tourists will start evading India on the pretext of security which will affect the forex reserves, a blow that the country’s economy is not in a position to withstand at this juncture. The aviation sector seems to have become an easy target to damage both the reputation and economy of the country.
The conspiracy theory gains further ground considering the fact that it is not just the airlines, but several other important installations have also received threats in recent months. These seem to have been done with malicious intent aimed at disrupting normalcy. These calls, which have turned out to be hoax, should not be considered as a child’s play. Rather, whether genuine or hoax, culprits should penalised for disrupting air services and creating a fear psychosis among air travellers. In this context, banning the culprits from flying for a couple of years turns out to be too cosmetic to prevent the offenders from repeating their acts or to set a precedent for such cases. They should be treated at par with other criminals involved in heinous crimes. There should not be any ambiguity regarding the nature of the crime and the punishment as well. Effective deterrent can curb such menace. If needed the existing laws should be amended to add more teeth to it.
