New Delhi: An emergency was sent by Air India’s Mumbai-bound flight AI 2957 which took off from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi airport. In the signal sent to Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Delhi at around 8:40 pm on Monday. it was indicated that the flight was potentially hijacked.
After receiving the signal, the Delhi Airport authorities immediately swung into action and alerted the destination airport, security agencies and the Indian Air Force (IAF), reported Hindustan Times.
A central committee, comprising, representatives from, the IAF, the Delhi police, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) was formed to monitor the situation. However, the pilot informed ATC that it was a false alarm.
The flight landed at the Mumbai Airport at 8:47 pm. There were 126 passengers travelling on the flight. “An aerodrome committee at Mumbai airport was formed as per protocol and a full emergency was declared at the airport, at around 9:30 pm, where all the local police and stakeholders along with NSG (National Security Guard) were deployed,” Mumbai airport official told Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity.
After landing, the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay and passengers were allowed to deboard the plane only after one hour. The aircraft’s transponder sent a ‘squawk 7500’ code to the Delhi ATC immediately after its take off, a Delhi airport official told the media house without being named.
Notably, ‘squawk 7500’ refers to an unlawful interference.
