Indian airlines have received more than 100 hoax bomb threats in a span of a few days, forcing planes to delay, reroute and make emergency landings – throwing the country’s aviation industry into costly disarray right before one of the biggest festivals of the year.

The epidemic of hoax threats has targeted both international and domestic flights, causing chaos on long-haul trips headed for places such as New York. Although one arrest was made last week, with authorities vowing to punish perpetrators potentially with jail time, the spate of threats has continued, often sent through emails and social media posts.

One airline alone, the budget company IndiGo Airlines, received nearly 30 bomb threats in four days since Sunday, according to statements by the carrier. Other Indian airlines, including Akasa Airlines, SpiceJet and Alliance Air, have also been impacted.

The highest-profile hoaxes targeted Air India last week; one flight en route to Chicago had to make an emergency landing in Canada’s northernmost city in the Arctic, while another flight headed to Singapore had to be escorted by Singaporean fighter jets, with bomb disposal squads waiting at the airport.

Since the flurry of hoaxes first started around mid-October, “we have [had] 150 to 160” threats, said Sanjay Lazar, an aviation expert and former Air India crew member.

Bomb threat hoaxes aren’t a new phenomenon in India – several airports received similar threats in April and June this year. But the sheer frequency and level of disruption in the past two weeks has been unprecedented, sending investigators scrambling to determine who is behind the threats.

Police in Mumbai said last Tuesday that they had arrested a minor suspected of posting threats against IndiGo Airlines on X, formerly Twitter. Police are also questioning a second minor, and “there are chances he played a role in this,” a spokesperson said.

But no further arrests have been made, and more threats have come in despite authorities stepping up security measures, threatening legal punishments, appeasing airlines and reassuring panicked passengers.

“Even though there are hoax threats, we can’t take the situation non-seriously,” said Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu in a news conference on Monday. “The safety and security of people and convenient travel … is always our utmost priority.”

With less than a week until Diwali, the festival of lights – which sparks a travel boom each year as millions of Indians fly domestically and diaspora members come home from abroad – experts worry that the ongoing hoaxes could wreak travel havoc.

Millions of dollars lost

Each bomb threat causes a ripple effect of disruptions, costing both airlines and passengers huge amounts of time and money, said Lazar.

This is partly because of strict protocols set out by outdated laws, he said. Under a 1982 law last amended in 2010, “every threat has to be taken into consideration,” he said – even though the law doesn’t mention modern factors such as social media that complicate the task.

There’s also the “lengthy process” of bureaucracy and coordinating with various committees, Lazar said.

Authorities follow these steps “word for word” with every single threat, said aviation minister Naidu. “Whenever there is a bomb threat case happening, if it is through a call or if it is through social media or if it is through some other means, we have a strict protocol that we follow,” he added.

But the threats – and their aftermath – have caused massive headaches for airlines. Not only do they have to disrupt passenger plans by rerouting or making unexpected landings, but they must also cope with the hours-long process of isolating the plane, checking the aircraft from top to bottom, screening every piece of luggage, and allowing a “cooling period” for the plane afterward, expert Lazar said.

“It’s not very simple … there’s a lot of cost and time involved.”

While the airlines have not disclosed the extent of their losses, Lazar estimated each affected carrier has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars – and the cost for the industry as a whole is likely in the millions.

The losses rack up through landing charges, fuel dumping, bomb disposal squad fees, and providing services for passengers including accommodation, alternate flights and refunds.

These disruptions would be a nightmare at any time – but particularly in the run-up to Diwali, which begins on October 31. Also called Deepvali, the festival of lights is celebrated by more than a billion Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists around the world, with families gathering to feast on food, exchange gifts and make religious offerings.

That also makes it the second-biggest travel period of the year in India, after the Christmas to New Year period, according to Lazar.

By September, flight bookings for the Diwali period had seen an 85% increase on last year – surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to World on Holiday, an Indian organization that analyzes travel and hospitality data.

“Passengers are going to be scared but those who need to fly will fly … so what’s going to happen if this havoc is created around Diwali?” Lazar said.

He added that while he was worried about the recent string of bomb threats, he was “even more worried about what’s going to happen around Diwali and Christmas.”

Government efforts

Authorities still don’t know who is making these threats and why – though Naidu, the aviation minister, blamed the recent hoaxes on “minors and pranksters” in a post on X.

On Monday, he also admitted it’s hard to even say whether the threats are coming from inside India due to the potential use of VPNs to mask users’ locations.

Authorities are now investigating and coordinating with different government ministries, the minister added. Meanwhile, airports have increased the number of security checks and the use of CCTV cameras to monitor their area “more thoroughly.”

The civil aviation ministry is also trying to introduce legal changes as a deterrent. If passed, the amendments would put hoax perpetrators on a no-fly list and criminalize hoaxes as a “cognizable offence,” which allows police to arrest suspects without a warrant, Naidu said.

Lazar argues the proposed measures are far from enough – saying it was “stupid” to dismiss the hoaxes as “the work of a prankster” given the severity of the disruption and potential danger of a real threat.

Authorities should use the country’s technological heft to track down online users, he said, including working with international agencies and social media platforms.

Until then, “I don’t believe we’ve seen the end of this,” he said.

A man in Northern Ireland has been sentenced to life for several crimes, including manslaughter, after using social media sites to blackmail and sexually abuse at least 70 minors in several countries.

Alexander McCartney, 26, was sentenced by a judge at Belfast Crown Court on Friday for child sexual offenses, blackmail and the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl who took her own life in the United States in 2018 after being “catfished,” according to a statement from Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

Catfishing – often used on social media – is when a person uses false information and images to create a fake identity online with the intention of tricking, harassing, or scamming another person.

According to authorities, McCartney pretended to be a young girl, befriended victims on social media and manipulated them into sending him nude images of themselves.

The victims were then threatened “into sending him indecent images and videos of themselves, forcing them to engage in depraved and sometimes dangerous sexual acts,” the statement said.

McCartney – who targeted around 3,500 girls from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Great Britain, the US and New Zealand – sought to “exploit that vulnerability in the most shocking ways,” acting head of the PPS Serious Crime Unit Catherine Kierans said.

“All McCartney’s victims were young, innocent children” as young as 10 years old and “struggling with identity and body image issues and had reached out for help on social media,” Kierans said.

In total, McCartney pleaded guilty to 185 charges involving 70 victims. McCartney must serve a minimum of 20 years in prison before he can be considered for parole.

“Tragically, one of his young victims, who was just 12, had taken her own life during an online chat in which he was threatening her and forcing her to engage in sexual activity,” Kierans noted. She said that the girl, an American, and McCartney never met in person.

“If we discover this activity, or it is reported to us, we remove it, lock the violating account and report it to the authorities,” the social media site said. It added that the app has “extra protections for teens to make it difficult for them to be contacted by strangers.”

The PPS is working to identify more of McCartney’s victims, according to its statement.

Israel said on Saturday it had struck military targets inside Iran in response to earlier Iranian attacks, again raising fears that the long-running confrontation between the two powerful militaries could escalate into an all-out regional war that draws in the United States.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Iranian missile manufacturing sites and aerial defense systems in what appeared to be a highly calculated response that avoided critical energy infrastructure, such as oil fields and nuclear facilities.

Iran appeared to downplay the impact of the attack, claiming its air defenses had successfully countered the strikes in three provinces – Tehran, Ilam and Khuzestan – and that the damage was “limited.”

The US meanwhile described the attack as “an exercise in self-defense” that “specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets.”

Israel had vowed Iran would pay for its large-scale missile attack on October 1 that saw around 200 missiles fired at Israel, forcing people across the country to take cover in bomb shelters. For weeks Israeli leaders have been deliberating on the nature and scope of such a response.

Here’s what we know.

What happened?

In the early hours of Saturday local time, Israel launched direct airstrikes against Iran, conducting what it said was “precise strikes on military targets.”

The Israeli military said its air force struck “missile manufacturing facilities” that it said were used to produce the missiles that Iran had fired at Israel over the last year.

It also said the Israeli military struck “surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.” It is unclear if those manufacturing facilities also produced missiles launched by Iranian proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Iran later confirmed the attack but said the strikes caused only “limited damage” in some areas, while images broadcast on state media showed the calmness on the streets of the capital Tehran.

Iran’s state news agency reported strikes targeting “military centers in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam” had been “successfully intercepted.”

Several explosions were heard west of Tehran around 2:15 a.m. local time (7 p.m. ET Friday), according to the state news agency. Iranian officials said blasts heard around the country were related to air defense systems being deployed.

The initial strikes were closely followed by a second wave, as video posted to social media by Tehran residents showed tracer fire and explosions illuminating the Iranian capital’s sky as dawn neared. A third and final wave then followed.

By about 6 a.m. local time, the Israeli military said it has concluded its operation, saying the “mission was fulfilled” and Israeli jets “have safely returned home.”

How did we get here?

Saturday’s strikes are part of Israel’s long-awaited retaliation to Iran’s missile attack earlier this month, as the ongoing war in the Middle East continues to escalate to dangerous new levels.

On October 1, Iran launched 200 projectiles towards Tel Aviv and Israeli military bases in what it said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others, its largest ever such attack.

That missile barrage came about 24 hours after Israel launched a ground war in Lebanon, opening a new front in its war against Iranian-backed militants.

Israel and Iran have been fighting a shadow war through proxies and covert actions for decades. In April, that war came out into the open when Iran launched a wave of drones and missiles at Israel in an unprecedented attack in response to a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria.

In recent weeks, Israel has ramped up its attacks against Iran’s proxies, including launching strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen, and militants in Syria.

But it’s in Lebanon where Israel has refocused its operations after tit-for-tat strikes across the border escalated after Israel eliminated the leadership of Iran-backed Hezbollah in series of assassinations and airstrikes.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on his underground headquarters in Beirut in September. Netanyahu had previously said his killing was “a necessary step” toward changing “the balance of power in the region for years to come.”

Israel’s war in Lebanon has since killed more than 2,500 people, displaced 1.2 million and created a unprecedented humanitarian crisis, according to Lebanon’s leader and international health officials.

In a statement issued at the outset of Saturday’s actions, the Israeli military accused Iran and its regional proxies of relentlessly attacking Israel beginning with last year’s 7 October attack by Iran-allied Hamas, during which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 abducted.

Following the October 7 attacks, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched military operations in Gaza that have killed more than 42,000 people.

The UN’s human rights chief warned Friday that “one of the darkest moments” of the war is unfolding in the north of Gaza where the Israeli military is “subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and starvation.”

What happens next?

A major concern of increasing military escalations is that Israel and Iran will become entangled in a full-scale war, one that risks drawing the US – Israel’s closest ally and biggest weapons supplier – into the fray.

A senior US administration official said President Biden has “encouraged” Netanyahu last week to “design” a retaliatory attack that would “deter future attacks against Israel.”

In recent weeks, the US and other allies have urged Netanyahu to exercise restraint and avoid striking Iran’s nuclear and oil assets.

The White House said the US “was not a participant in this operation” and urged “Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation.”

By refraining from attacking Iran’s oil or nuclear sites, Israel has potentially left room for de-escalation. But it is unclear whether Iran will respond to this latest attack.

Israel’s top military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said after the conclusion of strikes that if Iran were to begin “a new round of escalation,” Israel will be “obligated to respond.”

Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award-winning, American actor Billy Porter and celebrated South African television presenter Bonang Matheba have been tapped to host the fourth annual Earthshot Prize Awards in South Africa on November 6.

The Earthshot Prize is an ambitious environmental initiative founded by Prince William back in 2020 that seeks to offer green solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Porter, who described co-hosting the evening as an “honor,” said in a statement: “I’m so inspired by the Earthshot community, and I can’t wait to be part of an evening that celebrates creativity, human ingenuity, and artistry in all its different forms.”

Matheba said she was “excited to celebrate these incredible innovators who are making a significant impact on our planet.”

The star-studded, eco awards ceremony – set to take place in Cape Town, South Africa in early November – will also include special performances and appearances from Nigerian singer-songwriter Davido, Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz, South African composer Lebo M alongside the Ndlovu Youth Choir and internationally acclaimed DJ and producer, Uncle Waffles.

The 15 Earthshot Prize finalists hail from six continents, with France, Ghana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Nepal all having teams in contention for the first time. The winners will be selected by the Prince of Wales and a panel of experts including José Andrés, Queen Rania of Jordan and David Attenborough. Each of the five winners will receive a prize of £1 million (about $1.3 million) to scale up their solutions.

Since the scheme launched, it has delivered more than £75 million (around $100 million) in direct funding and in-kind support, according to organizers. The competition has five categories: “Protect and Restore Nature,” “Clean Our Air,” “Revive Our Oceans,” “Build a Waste Free World,” and “Fix Our Climate.”

Supermodel and TV host Heidi Klum, actor and activist Nina Dobrev, Canadian model Winnie Harlow and performer Tobe Nwigwe will be on hand to announce the five category winners.

While celebrating the work of global environmental innovators, the event also intends to spotlight innovation from across the African continent.

The star-studded ceremony will be available to watch globally through a special partnership with YouTube. Earthshot Week runs November 4 to 7, culminating with the Earthshot Prize Awards on November 6.