Drill was a real-time test

New Delhi: The security agencies seem reasonably pleased with their response to the hijack threat on Sunday with commandos prepared for much harder options if the passenger who caused the alert had not "subsided" and returned to his seat when the Indigo flight landed at Delhi.
The communication from the cockpit informing the ATC that the passenger was seated and had not produced a weapon, allowed the NSG team some time to factor in the safety of other travellers before entering the aircraft.
The anti-hijacking unit, top security officials and even Union home minister P Chidambaram experienced a "real time" test in the wake of the alert on Sunday with the sequence of events seeing the minister station himself in the control room of Intelligence Bureau (IB) till an all clear was sounded.
The alert saw Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar summoning home, defence and civil aviation secretaries for a meeting of the committee of secretaries on anti-hijacking within half-an-hour of the landing of the aircraft at Delhi Airport.
The NSG's anti-hijacking commandos and Quick Reaction Team of the CISF surround the aircraft within 20 minutes of getting the first call from the pilot to the Air Traffic Control.
A senior home ministry official said each and every stage of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) was followed minutely. Even the time taken by the commandos to get inside the aircraft was intended to ensure no step was taken in haste at the cost of passengers' safety, he added.
NSG officials said had the unruly passenger begun harming people, the action would have certainly been different from what was witnessed on Sunday night. Commandos were constantly informed what was happening inside with the help of coordinated communication through pilot, ATC and ground control room. Even after swooping down the accused Jitendra and two others, the commandos did not let the passengers go as they wanted to screen each and every one before allowing them to exit.
03/02/09 Vishwa Mohan/Times of India

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