Mock flight hijack exercise at airport

In a mock exercise at Mangalore Airport on Tuesday, four “militants” hijacked a flight with 80 passengers on it.

After the negotiation, all the passengers were freed and the hijack episode ended peacefully.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) did not use real aircraft for it. Instead a bus was used.

The bus was presumed as an aircraft and named XYZ -123. After four militants contacted the communication tower at the airport that it had been hijacked, personnel of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) surrounded it.

The runway was also blocked.

The flight (bus) was taken to an isolated parking stand for negotiation with hijackers.

The militants even wanted to speak to the Prime Minister.

M.V. Venkatesh, Assistant Commissioner, Mangalore sub-division, acted as the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada and negotiated with the hijackers with others.

Director of the airport M. R. Vasudeva told The Hindu that all authorities concerned later reviewed their roles in such circumstances.

They reviewed the drawbacks.

An hour-long drill

He said that the police, the Fire and Emergency Services personnel, the Revenue Department officials and other authorities concerned took part in the mock exercise.

The entire operation lasted an hour.