Indian man arrested for making bomb threat to Abu Dhabi-bound Air Arabia flight

Indian police have arrested a man for allegedly making a bomb threat to an Abu Dhabi-bound Air Arabia flight.

Mohammad Ijas, 26, sent an email to the airport director of Karipur International Airport in Kozhikode in southern Kerala state on Tuesday claiming that the flight heading to Abu Dhabi was rigged with a bomb. He was arrested by police on Wednesday.

“We arrested Mohammad Ijas. He emailed the airport using his personal email address saying that there was a bomb in the aircraft. We sent a team yesterday,” Abbas Ali, senior police officer at Karipur Airport police station, told The National.

Police said he was on the flight to Abu Dubai but did not want to travel due to financial issues. He had borrowed over 1.1 million rupees ($13,000) from friends.

“He had financial issues and wanted to cancel the flight. He travelled to Abu Dhabi each month. We don’t know yet what was his actual job or what he did there,” Mr Ali said.

Mr Ali said that Mr Ijas was brought before the chief magistrate and sent to two weeks of judicial custody. Authorities have charged him under relevant sections of the Civil Aviation Act, as well as the penal laws and Kerala Police Act.

“The punishment for such crimes under the Civil Aviation Act is life imprisonment,” Mr Ali said.

The arrest comes a week after Indian police detained a 17-year-old from eastern Chhattisgarh state for allegedly issuing bomb threats to four flights on X using a fake social media account. He had reportedly planned to take revenge on his friend over a money dispute.

Police also arrested a 25-year-old man from Delhi for sending two bomb threats to multiple flights and airlines last week and another man from Nagpur was identified on Tuesday for issuing hoax bomb threats to several airlines.

More than 250 flights had received hoax bomb threats for three straight days earlier this month, including international flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and the US, that led to cancellations, diversions and disruptions to flight services.