Hijack scare: police clueless about motive of youth

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) Police are clueless about the
motive of the youth who created a mid-air "hijack" scare
inside an Indigo flight, leading to inconvenience to
passengers and a security crisis at the IGI airport here in
India's national capital.

"I do not know why he did it. The motive is not clear.
But when he did it, he did threaten the girl (air hostess) and
caused lot of inconvenience to various passengers who could
not land on time because of the scare," Addition Commissioner
of Police (Operation) Ujjwal Mishra said.

Three persons -- Jitendra Kumar, Samir Uppal and Harpreet
-- were taken into custody and were questioned after their
behaviour aroused suspicions inside the flight Sunday.

While police let off the two persons, Jitendra Kumar was
produced in a court which sent him to 14 days judicial
custody.

"The scare caused a lot of pain and anguish. So he needed
to be booked and we booked him," Mishra said.

The accused has been booked under sections 336 (Act
endangering life and personal safety of others) and section
506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal
Code and Suppression of Unlawful Act Against Safety Of Civil
Aviation Act, 1982.

Mishra said in view of such incidents, the air hostesses
should be given power and be trained to search passengers and
their belongings "if need be".

"She (air hostess) must be trained to search passengers
if he threatens. She must be trained to search his hand
baggage in case he lets out such a threat. She must have that
power and confidence to do that. This is a sort of training
that Indigo or any other airline should impart," Mishra said.

Mishra favoured giving wider power to cabin crew and
said, "up in the air, you do not have a policeman. It is the
air hostess or cabin crew who are totally in charge and they
must have wider power to disarm passenger if need be".

An Airbus A320 aircraft (Flight 6E 334) of low-cost air
carrier Indigo with around 163 passengers on board a flight
from Goa to Delhi had made an emergency landing at the
IGI airport here yesterday after its pilot reported to the Air
Traffic Control that a "couple" of passengers were behaving
aggressively and made a hijack threat.

An Emergency drill followed immediately and the aircraft
was taken to the isolation bay at the airport. The threat was
made about 15 minutes before the aircraft was due to land.