Our skies remain unsafe

Bangalore: For seven days (December 24 to December 31, 1999) when five Pakistani terrorists hijacked the IC 814 with 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board and was forced to land in Kandahar in Afghanistan, the terrorist outfits held our citizens for a ransom.
The hijack drama could have been averted or certain events could have been prevented had there been two crucial officials/ personnel on board, Sky Marshal's and Airline Negotiators.
Sky marshals are undercover security officers (in plain clothes) on board a commercial aircraft to counter aircraft hijacking. Airline negotiators are officials, who apart from keeping the communication channel open with the hijackers also informs the government, police, para-military and armed forces on the status of negotiations. Now, a decade later though no IC 814's have taken place since then, India has still not been able to fully address the above. Sky marshals deputed on board domestic flights to thwart hijack or terror activities are only deputed on certain flight routes.
Similarly, not much is known if there are airline negotiators among the domestic carriers as Home Minister Chidambaram had expressed concerns over airlines not employing negotiators.
03/12/09 Hemanth CS/ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Safety Dec 2009