Indian Plane In Emergency Landing After Hijack Threat

February 2, 2009

An Indian domestic airliner flying from the tourist state of Goa made an emergency landing in New Delhi on Sunday after two passengers threatened to hijack the plane, a government statement said.

Heavily-armed National Security Guard commandos surrounded the plane once it landed and taxied to an isolated bay at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

"There were couple of passengers behaving aggressively who also said that they would hijack the plane," a Ministry of Civil Aviation statement said, adding that an anti-hijacking drill followed.

India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told CNN-IBN television that the crew had reported the incident as "a potential hijack situation".

He said three passengers had been detained.

India has been tense since November when attacks by Islamist gunmen in Mumbai killed 179 people. There have been a series of bombings in other cities over the past year.

The Indigo Airlines flight with 162 passengers and six crew landed in New Delhi at around 1200 GMT. Flight operations at the airport were suspended for some time as a precautionary measure.

An official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security said that one of the detained passengers was drunk and had said he was carrying a knife.