 "Bomb hoax on Indian flights: Who is Adam Lanza, on whom Twitter handle linked to threats is named?")
A total of 90 hoax bomb threats have been issued to Indian airlines in the past week.
The industry, serving domestic and international routes, suffered route diversions, flight delays, cancellations and a loss of crores of rupees.
According to media reports, about 70 per cent of these false threats originated from a single source: @adamlanza1111 on X (formerly Twitter).
Who issued threats?
X handle @adamlanza1111 made 12 threats to Indian airlines on Friday night (October 18) and 34 on Saturday (October 19), as per The Indian Express.
The user issued threats to airlines such as Air India, Vistara, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Alliance Air, SpiceJet, and Star Air and international carriers — American Airlines, Jet Blue, and Air New Zealand. While Star Air received threats for four of its flights, others got similar messages for five flights each.
The posts had an identical message: “There are bombs onboard five of your planes… No one will make out alive. Hurry up and evacuate the plane.”
While a few flights were airborne when the threats were posted, while others had already completed their journey.
The account was active till Saturday afternoon after being suspended by the microblogging platform.
Who is Adam Lanza?
The notorious X handle is named after Adam Lanza, the mass shooter who orchestrated one of the US’ deadliest elementary school shootings in 2012.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOn December 14, Lanza went on a shooting spree at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children, aged between six and seven years, and six educators. It was the same school where he studied for four years.
The 20-year-old also killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in her sleep before going on his shooting rampage. According to CNN, he grabbed three guns from his house – a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle and pistols before going to the elementary school wearing black fatigues and a military vest.
Lanza eventually took his own life.
The motive behind the mass shooting was never found.
The documents unveiled after the Hartford Courant prevailed at the Supreme Court showed a more detailed picture of Lanza’s disturbed state of mind since childhood. The documents included hundreds of pages of his writings a spreadsheet with the specifics of 400 incidents of mass violence going back to 1786.
According to the documents, Lanza wrote in what appeared to be an online communication with a fellow gamer, “I incessantly have nothing other than scorn for humanity. I have been desperate to feel anything positive for someone for my entire life.”
The FBI also released documents, large portions of which included interviews, in 2017. In one entry, a woman who had connected with Lanza on the internet about two and half years before the massacre said she knew he had been obsessed with mass shootings.
“Lanza was working on a list, or spreadsheet, meticulously documenting the details of hundreds of spree killings and mass murders,” agents with the FBI wrote of their interview with her, adding that he had devoted all his time to researching these events.
As per a report by the Connecticut child advocate, Lanza’s severe and deteriorating mental health problems, his preoccupation with violence and access to his mother’s weapons “proved a recipe for mass murder.”
The reports say Lanza’s mother was increasingly protective of him since 10th grade after her separation from her husband and had kept him at home, where an arsenal of firearms surrounded him. He also spent long hours playing violent games.
His medical and school records included references to diagnoses of sensory disorder, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He also had a phobia of germs.
Thus, it is even more disturbing that a social media handle had been named after a man obsessed with mass shootings.
How common are hoax threats to the aviation industry?
Well, false threats targeting Indian airlines are not new.
Last week alone, at least 90 threats were reported, resulting in diversions, cancellations and delays. In June, 41 airports received hoax bomb threats via email in a single day, prompting heightened security, as per the BBC. There were about 120 false bomb alerts at airports between 2014 and 2017. Nearly half of them were directed at Delhi and Mumbai airports, also the largest ones in the country.
A 17-year-old school dropout was arrested last week for creating a social media account to issue such hoax threats to four flights, three international ones. This resulted in two delays, one diversion and one cancellation. The motive behind false alerts remains unclear.
The report citing experts says false bomb threats are often linked to malicious intent, attention-seeking, mental health issues, disruption of business operations or even a prank. In 2018, there was an instance reported in Indonesia where jokes about bombs by passengers led to flight disruptions. Even passengers may be the culprits sometimes. In 2023, a frustrated passenger in Bihar attempted to delay a SpiceJet flight by calling a bomb hoax alert after he missed his check-in at an airport.
How do these affect airlines?
False threats wreak havoc in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets.
More than 3,000 flights operate every day in the country from more than 150 operational airports. This includes 33 international airports. As per Civil Aviation Ministry, more than 150 million passengers flew domestically in India last year. The industry has just under 700 commercial passenger planes in services and an order backlog of more than 1,700 planes, according to the BBC, quoting Rob Morris of Cirium, a consultancy.
Hoaxes are peaking at a time when the country’s airlines prepare for a festive season. On October 14, Indian airlines carried a record 484,263 passengers on a single day.
“All this would certainly render India the fastest-growing commercial aircraft market today,” he says.
This rise in threats also has significant cost and network implications.
The BBC quoted Siddharth Kapur, an independent aviation expert, saying, “Every diverted or delayed flight incurs substantial expenses, as grounded aircraft become money-losing assets. Delays lead to cancellations, and schedules are thrown off balance.”
Additionally, most threats are posted on social media from anonymous accounts, further complicating efforts to identify culprits.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
