Hijack threat: 3 passengers including a woman detained

New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday night (February 1) said three passengers including a woman onboard a Delhi-bound Indigo flight from Goa have been detained in connection with the mid-air threat to 'hijack' the aircraft. Chidambaram said the three passengers have been identified and at one stage it appeared to be a potential hijack situation.
The minister told reporters that no arms were found on the detained persons and more details would be known only after their investigation. "All actions were taken according to book and I am relieved and happy that the situation has been resolved and all the passengers are safe," Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram said the pilot of the Airbus A320 aircraft had correctly assessed the situation as a potential hijack which was communicated to the Air Traffic Control in New Delhi before making an emergency landing in New Delhi. The minister said he cannot rule out anything unless interrogation is complete.
"By tomorrow we will be able to tell you more about whether it was indeed a hijack or anything else and what was the role of the persons detained." "Three persons have been detained. We have names but unless they are interrogated and identity established, we can't release the names," he said, adding "all passengers are safe."
"The behaviour of these three passengers led to a situation where the crew reported that they thought it was potential hijack situation. The aircraft was anyway near Delhi and therefore landed at the airport here." He also said one of the three detained passengers moved around from one seat to another and had changed the seat at the last moment.
While Civil Aviation secretary M Madhavan Nambiar said a couple of passengers had threatened to 'hijack' the plane, unconfirmed reports said that a threat to blow up the plane was also made after one of them had an argument with an airhostess over change of seat.
01/02/09 Times Now.tv

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Categories: Airports Feb 2009, Indigo Airlines Feb 2009, Safety Feb 2009