The Hijack That Never Was

The "drama" began with the news from Civil Aviation MinisterShahnawaz Hussain,  that an Alliance Air Flight CD-7444 from Mumbai hadbeen hijacked by two persons. The minister said a hijack distress call had beenreceived by the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC), where the plane landed ataround 0052 hours (IST).

Hussain had told Star News that the civil aviation ministry hadreceived an anonymous call saying that the flight was going to be hijacked assoon as the flight had taken off from Bombay, though there was no such reportfrom the pilot till the plane was flying over Ahmedabad. Maharashtra HomeMinister also denied knowledge of any such information.

The hijackers had apparently told the pilots to fly the plane to Lucknow, orso the available news went, but the pilots had managed to land the aircraft inDelhi airport.

It was 0052 hours.

Apparently, the aircraft still had 4.9 tonnes of fuel, equivalent to roughly90 minutes of flying time. As a result, Lucknow airport had been alerted inanticipation that the plane might be flown there -- army personnel, explosivesexperts and the police were reported to be on standby.

The news was conflicting and sketchy as would be obvious from the PTI wirereports, but it was reported that the pilot had asked for two engineers to comeon board. There was no indication of the demands of the hijackers.

Officials said the hijackers had not been able to enter the cockpit of theaircraft which was said to have been sealed off by the pilots. Then came thenews that the hijackers were inside the cockpit.

Delhi was on full alert. The plane was said to have been immobilised (with a,gasp, oil tanker, parked on the runway, in front of the plane).

A crisis management team headed by Home Minister Advani was in meeting.Experts were on TV talking about contingency plans and how they intended to blowthe tyres off and storm the plane. Hijacking to Kandahar had to be, and was,invoked; conversations with its passengers was on. Possible scenarios, demands,negotiations, strategy was being discussed. Crack NSG commandos had surroundedthe plane.

Emergency call numbers had been announced. The passengers were reported to besafe, but anxious and worried relatives had gathered. In understandable panic.Wire services were putting out pictures of the deployment of forces and thegathering of relatives at the airport.

And then came word from the Civil Aviation Minister, Hussain, that the "hijackdrama" was over. Deplaning of passengers had begun.

The Minister said it was a "false alarm" triggered by Air TrafficControl in Ahmedabad. Apparently, or as the minister reported, ATC Ahmedabad gotan anonymous call after which the "confusion" started. The pilotslocked the doors of the cockpit when ATC Ahmedabad informed them, thinking thatthe hijackers were in the passengers' cabin. In the resulting confusion,  thepassengers thought that the hijackers were in the cockpit.

The plane thereafter landed at Delhi airport and wassurrounded by commandos of the elite National Security Guard. By then the pilotshad informed the ground control that there were no hijackers inside the cockpit.So the NSG commandos boarded the plane through the cockpit door, and aftertaking all precautions, entered the passenger area. Voila. There were nohijackers.  It was about 4 A.M. The whole suspenseful, tense drama hadlasted almost the full length of an average farcical movie.

There were 46 passengers on board, besides a six-membercrew, including two pilots, he said. Ah, so that did add up to 52 in all.Perhaps those two pilots got added twice which accounted for the figure of 54.

"We have not been taking any chances with reportsof hijacks," Hussain explained, "but the government will look into thephone call to the Ahmedabad ATC about the flight being hijacked."

However, there were no sky marshals on board the plane,he said. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was inconstant touch with the concerned authorities while Home Minister L K Advani waspresent at the Civil Aviation Ministry headquarters, Hussain said.

He said all precautions had been taken includingstationing of bowsers on the runway to stall any possible take-off. The planewas parked at an isolated bay at the airport. There seems to be another angle asto what started the confusion, as PTI reports Hussain as saying that "oneof the passengers wanted to enter the cockpit which created all the confusion. The passenger claimed to be an officer but carried noI-card, he said".

STAR News quoted some disembarking passengers that the commandos whohad entered the plane took away two men at gun point.

Click here to see how the reports came in