Mock hijack makes a mockery of itself

Chennai: A mock anti-hijack drill at the airport here on Tuesday afternoon made a mockery of the exercise itself besides leaving doubts in the mind of an onlooker if the various agencies are really prepared to raise to the occasion when an emergency situation comes up.
First, it was treated more as a joke by everyone involved in the drill as they all had prior information about it and there was no element of surprise.
Then, instead of an aircraft, a bus was used as a ‘mock aircraft’ though the drama started unfolding at 3 pm, during runway closure time, with an SOS from mid-air.
An Air India pilot wanted emergency landing permission from the air traffic control (ATC) as his ‘plane’ had been hijacked en route to Singapore from Dubai. The ‘hijacked aircraft’, after ‘landing’ with the crew, 28 passengers and three hijackers (CISF personnel donned the role) on board, was positioned on a designated isolated parking stand with its path blocked.
A command post was established to coordinate the activities from a control room with the principal home secretary of Tamil Nadu in the lead and negotiations with hijackers were carried out by Commissioner of Police (Suburban) S R Jangid.
“Mock antihijack drill is an annual exercise that airports have to carry out. The coordination of various agencies like police, CISF and medical agencies was good and we all felt more confident to handle such a situation,” a senior airport official said.
07/04/10 ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Airports Apr 2010, Safety Apr 2010