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Alliance Air Bom-Del flight hijacked

An Alliance Air Boeing 737 flight (CD 7444) from Bombay to Delhi was hijacked by two persons late on Wednesday night, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain informed on Wednesday night.

The pilot has informed the control tower in Delhi airport that the 52 persons, including crew members, on board the aircraft are safe.

The plane is now parked at runway no 10, between the domestic and international airports.

Five ambulances have been parked near the plane and National Security Guard (NSG) commandos have surrounded it.

An oil tanker has been parked in front to prevent take off. Plane will not be allowed to take off under any circumstances, sources at the airport said.

Members of the Delhi police bomb squad, fire engines and other officials are on stand-by to attend to any emergency.

The pilot has asked for two engineers to come on board, according to Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain who said all the passengers are safe.

The hijackers had told the pilots to fly the plane to Lucknow. However, the pilots managed to land the aircraft in Delhi airport.

It is learnt that the Lucknow Air Traffic Control (ATC) has informed Delhi ATC about heavy rains in Lucknow and that conditions are not conducive for flights to land.

No other demands have been received from the hijackers as yet, the minister said adding that the cockpit has been sealed, which means that the hijackers have no access to the pilots or the controls of the aircraft.

Apparently, the aircraft still has 4.9 tonnes of fuel, equivalent to roughly 90 minutes of flying time.

Alliance Air is a subsidiary of Indian Airlines. The plane is the last shuttle flight from Bombay to Delhi, for which the tickets are priced at Rs 4000, almost 20% cheaper than the usual fare.

Hussain told Star News that the civil aviation ministry had received an anonymous call saying that the flight was going to be hijacked as soon as the flight had taken off from Bombay, thought there was no such report from the pilot till the plane was flying over Ahmedabad.

The minister said a hijack distress call had been received by the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC), where the plane landed at around 0100 hours (IST).

The Crisis Management Group of the civil aviation ministry is meeting at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan (ministry headquarters) to take stock of the situation.

Union Home Minister L K Advani, Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain and Civil Aviation Secretary A H Jung are present at the meeting.

An urgent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security has also been called at 0400 hours (IST) while all airports in the country have been placed on red alert.

Also, Lucknow airport has been alerted in anticipation that the plane will be commandeered to the capital of Uttar Pradesh. The Lucknow district magistrate said that army personnel, explosives experts and the police are on standby.

Meanwhile, National Security Guard commandoes have reached the Delhi airport and are on stand-by.

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