Monday, February 2, 2009

Goa - Delhi flight survives scare in mid-air

Three inebriated passengers on board a low cost air carrier, "Indigo" flying from Goa to Delhi, with around 163 passengers, created a major panic situation necessitating an emergency landing at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi after the unruly passengers reportedly threatened to hijack the plane.

The three passengers seem to have scared the air-hostesses when they claimed that they had arms on the plane and allegedly indicated that they had also managed to put some fliers of the aircraft to sleep.

The alarmed air-hostess is reported to have alerted the pilot who immediately sounded the alarm signal for Delhi Air Traffic Control(ATC) and landed the aircraft at the Indira Gandhi International airport at around 5.30 pm , parking it at an isolated bay and was immediately surrounded by NSG and CISF forces.

While the passengers were unaware about the whole drama unfolding even after landing and they were informed of the hijack threat only by their relatives over mobile phones after hearing the news on Television.

The aircraft doors were finally opened at 7.52 pm with 5 commandos trooping inside the aircraft and disembarking all the passengers took another three hours.

The three passengers including one woman have been detained for questioning and another 20 odd fliers were being interrogated to elicit more information on the exact cause of the alarm. The passengers were however reportedly not carrying arms, but only further investigations would make the issue clear.

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