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AVIATION: HIJACK DRAMA
It Was Aaj Tak All the Way
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DRAMA IN THE AIR
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 1
Anonymous caller informs Alliance Air's Delhi office that Flight
No. CD-7444 Mumbai-Delhi had been hijacked. Alliance alerts the
Watch Supervisory Officer at ATC, Delhi who in turn asks Veeranna
Aivalli, commissioner, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to respond.
ALARM: THE CALL IS MADE TO 011-5671197, the OPERATIONS CELL
OF ALLIANCE AIR.
 2
Aivalli directs the ATC to inform the pilot about the possibility
of a hijack. Around 12.15 a.m., as the aircraft enters the Ahmedabad
beacon, ATC contacts pilot.
DOUBT: DID THE ATC INFORM THE PILOT INCORRECTLY OR DID THE
PILOT GET A GARBLED MESSAGE?
 3
The pilot punches the hijack code and the Crisis Management Group
(CMG) is alerted in Delhi. The "hijacked" plane now establishes
contact with the Delhi ATC. At 12.25 a.m., the pilot switches over
to the emergency frequency which can be heard by the Airport Crisis
Committee headed by Director General Civil Aviation H.S. Khola as
well as the CMG meeting at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan.
OMISSION: The routine exercise of alerting the Indian Air
Force is not followed.
 4
Around 12.50 a.m., the plane lands on Runway 10 and is immediately
surrounded by the NSG commandos in the isolation bay. Around 4 a.m.,
the pilot opens the cockpit windows for the NSG commandos to enter
the craft.
CONFUSION: While the pilot conveys that the hijackers are
in the cabin, passengers warn of hijackers in the cockpit over cellphones.
Flight: CD-7444 Alliance Air from Mumbai
to Delhi takes off from Mumbai's Sahar
Airport at 11.15 p.m. Flight time : 1hr.35
mins. Commander: Ashwini Behl.
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Even as they remained
seated, some of the passengers spoke on their cellular phones to TV channel
Aaj Tak, guessing the possible whereabouts of the "hijackers".
No one had quite spotted any of the "non-English speaking" men,
yet they all conveyed the same feeling: that something had gone seriously
wrong. To add to their adrenaline rush came an announcement that the delay
at the airport was on account of a mock, anti-hijacking drill. This too
turned out to be incorrect. During all mock operations, the Civil Aviation
minister is kept in the know. In this case, Shahnawaz Hussain, seemed
as clueless about any such drill as any other member of the CMG.
What continued to surprise through the night-long
drama was that no "demands" emanated from inside the aircraft.
If the "hijackers" had any, they clearly were shy of presenting
them. At about 4 a.m., Behl, palpably out of patience, asked the ATC to
allow NSG commandos to sneak in through the cockpit windows. At this point,
the CMG began another round of discussions. Permission was given, the
aircraft was stormed and the passengers safely let out.
Despite the "false alarm", the ATC
Guild defended the entire anti-hijacking operations, saying that given
intelligence inputs and threat perceptions, the drills were in order,
a view shared by the Civil Aviation Ministry as well. Also, in the process
of taking on non-existent hijackers, the NSG got a taste of much-needed
tension and preparedness on the ground. The commandos ensured that the
plane would not be allowed to leave Delhi, no matter what level of pressure
came from inside. The event also led to security measures being beefed
up at major airports in the country.
Despite the red faces, there was a lesson for
times to come: that it pays, at all times, to keep one's ears to the ground,
especially when the business is all about flying high.
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