Drunk passenger sparks hijack fear

NEW DELHI: An unruly passenger aboard a private airline aircraft, bound for the Capital from Goa, triggered fears of a hijack here on Sunday evening, forcing the authorities at the IGI airport to take recourse to emergency measures.

Flight E-664 of the Indigo Airline was on its way to the Capital from Goa when one of the attendants complained of unruly behaviour by one of the passengers, who was said to be in an inebriated state.

When asked to restrain himself, the passenger is said to have flew into a rage, declaring himself to be a ���terrorist��� who could ���hijack��� the plane. This sent alarm bells ringing, with pilots of Airbus A-320 aircraft seeking the ATC���s permission to make a priority landing at the IGI airport here at around 5.35 pm.

On landing, it was immediately directed to the ���isolation bay���, where the aircraft, with 163 passengers and six cabin crew, was immediately surrounded by security personnel belonging to the Delhi Police, CISF���s Quick Response Teams and the NSG. The aircraft door was thrown open soon after, and the security personnel rushed in to overpower the passenger. Jitendra Kumar Mohalla and his two accomplices, Samir Uppal and Harprit Anand were subsequently taken into custody for questioning.

As a result of this entire operation, operations at the airport remained suspended for an hour before normalcy could be restored. Pilots of some aircraft were asked to hover over around Delhi���s airspace before they got permission to land in view of the situation. Aircraft, which were about to take off, remained stranded at their parking slots during this period.