Spate of bomb threats poses serious challenge to airline industry

After a week of disruption, airlines are facing both safety and financial concerns. With no fewer than 32 bomb threats affecting a dozen airlines in the space of four days, the aviation industry is facing another potential crisis. Some of the threats apparently came from phone calls, others via email, and although they have all turned out to be hoaxes, they were each clearly serious enough to force emergency action. Some planes had to be escorted by military jets, others were quietly inspected mid-air by cabin crew – desperate not to cause alarm. A number had to be re-routed from their original destinations, landing at different airports, sometimes in different countries.

An Aer Lingus flight had to land at an airbase 1,000 kilometers from its intended destination after running low on fuel. All this poses a serious challenge to the airlines, who have little idea who is causing the severe disruption they have faced almost every day this week. Although so far all threats have turned out to be hoaxes, airlines have no choice but take each threat seriously. "They have a triage system, but follow the same protocols for each until they are absolutely sure there is no threat," says Marco Chan, a former commercial airline pilot and aviation expert at Kingston University. "That could involve a mid-air inspection,