Will revise procedures for counter-hijack demo on planes: NSG

MANESAR: In the backdrop of recovery of a dummy grenade in an Air India plane, the NSG today said it will "revise" its operating procedures for counter-hijack exercises in stationary aircraft and will use a separate "cleaning" team with commandos tasked for the drill exercises.

National Security Guard chief Jayanto N Choudhury told reporters here that among the new steps to be implemented in the future will be an essential practise of taking a separate "cleaning" team of the airline with the commandos tasked for the drill exercises.

The NSG uses civilian aircrafts, parked after regular duties, to train its special commando units in counter-hijack drills and it signs a undertaking with the airline that the force will not use any live arms and ammunition inside the aircraft and return it back intact.

"The said incident occurred on the night of September 26 when our commandos were undertaking a similar counter-hijack drill and hence dummy grenades and other items were used," the DG said.

"Our aim is to neutralise the hijackers...about cleaning the aircraft that could be a weakness (of commandos). Next time there will be a separate party with the Air India to clean the plane. During actual operations we don't clean the aircraft and hence they would have left it (inside the plane).

"In this case it (dummy grenade) got stuck into a seat. It was missed. So, as far as we are concerned we are taking steps and hope it will not happen again. In future what we thought is that we will do it jointly with whatever airline allows us the plane (to use for drills)," Choudhury told reporters on the sidelines of the NSG Raising Day celebrations here.