Mobile stolen on plane, returned after frisk threat

Mumbai: Passengers of an Indian flight that flew into the country early Tuesday learned that leaving cellphones on the adjacent vacant seat is not really a good idea.It was around 4 am after the aircraft had landed in Ahmedabad that Akbar Khan, an economy passenger on seat 1A realised that his mobile phone was missing. "He had kept his mobile over his disembarkation card on the right side vacant seat and had gone to sleep. Both the items were missing when he woke up and soon after the cabin crew made an announcement," said another passenger on board the Sharjah-Ahmedabad-Hyderabad-Mumbai flight.
"The aircraft was readying for take off at that time and following this complaint the commander, Capt Harish Shriyan shut the engines. The airline security staff came on board to do a search of the aircraft," he added.
Half-an-hour of search later when the cellphone could not be traced, other passengers began complaining about the delay and the aircraft took off for Hyderabad at around 5.30 am.
En route, the commander made an announcement that passengers should cooperate with frisking on arrival in Hyderabad by the customs and security officials.
"That perhaps scared the thief. But there was no frisking on board. We alighted at Hyderabad and went for customs clearance when we heard that the mobile phone was retrieved from the seat pocket of seat 2F, which it seems was behind the one occupied by the owner of the phone," the passenger said.
02/01/08 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Jan 2008, NACIL Jan 2008