IC814 Hijacked!

Saurabh Shukla, Anil Jaggia

Description

What was the intelegence failure that led to the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC814 from Kathmandu? Could the aircraft have been stopped at Amritsar airport? Was a commando raid planned on the aircraft? How was Rupin Katyal killed? Was the plane's destination always intended to be Kandahar? Was it merely prophetic that the hijackers had predicted the end of all negotiations on the millennium eve? These and other questions are answered in this blow-by-blow eyewitness account by Flight Engineer Anil K Jaggia who breaks the silence around the hijacking, with investigative reporting by senior correspondent Saurabh Shukla of The Indian Express

Sujets

• Political Science
• Saurabh Shukla
• The Indian Express
• Indian Airlines Flight 814
• Indian (airline)
• Terrorism
• Asian
• World
• Hijack
• Indian Airlines
• Intelligence
• Kandahar

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 01 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351940197
• Langue: English

Extrait

IC814 HIJACKED!

Anil K. Jaggia, 58, operated hijacked flight IC 814 as its Flight Engineer. He is Chief of Flight Engineering with Indian Airlines, and has 20,000 flight hours’ experience as Flight Engineer. An Instructor and Examiner Flight Engineer on the Airbus A300 aircraft, he received his technical education at ATTI (Air Technical Training Institute), Calcutta, and is also a graduate of the 35th Air Transport Course at Oxford, UK.


Saurabh Shukla, 27, IS an investigative journalist with The Indian Express. · A Masters in International Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, he was a British Chevening Scholar at the Centre for Security Studies, University of Hull, UK. He completed his second Masters in Security Studies in 1999. While in UK he did a course on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare. He has been nominated as a fellow by 21st Century Trust, London.

IC814 HIJACKED! The Inside Story
Other Lotus Titles
AMRITA PIUTAM
The Other Dimension
ARJAN SINGH
Arjan Singh’s TigerBook
DHANANAJAYA SINGH
The House of Marwar
E. JAIWANT PAUL
‘By My Sword and Shield’
E. JAIWANT PAUL
Rani of Jhansi: Lakshmi Bai
GANESH SAILI
Glorious Garhwal
GERALDINE FORBES (ed.)
The Memoirs of Dr. Haimabati Sen
INDIRA MENON
The Madras Quartet
IRADJ AMINI
Koh-i-noor
J.C. WADHAWAN
Manto Naama
JOHN LALL
Begam Samru
JYOTI JAFA
Nurjahan
KHUSHWANT SINGH
Kipling’s India
KANWALBIR PUSHPENDRA SINGH
The Ruse
K. M.GEORGE
The Best of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai
LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN
Medieval Seafarers
LALI CHATTERJEE
Muonic Rhapsody and Other Encounters
MAGGI LIDCHI-GRASSI
The Great Golden Legend of the Mahabharata
MANOHAR MALGONKAR
Dropping Names
MAURA MOYNIHAN
Masterji and Other Stories
MUSHIRUL HASAN
India Partitioned. 2 vols
MUSHIRUL HASAN
Educational Institutions in India
NAMITA GOKHALE
Mountain Echoe
NINA EPTON
Mumtaz Mahal: Beloved Empress
P. LAL
The Bhagauad Gita
ROMESH BHANDARI
Goa
RUSKIN BOND
Ruskin Bond’s Green Book
SHOVANA NARAYAN
Rhythmic Echoes and Refleaions: Kathak
SUDHIR KAKAR (ed.)
Indian Love Stories
VIBHUTI NARAIN RAI
Curfew in the City
V. S. NARAVANE
Best Stories from the Indian Classics
V. S. NARAVANE (ed.)
Devdas and Other Stories by Sarat Chandra
Forthcoming Titles
CLAUDIA PRECKEL
Begums of Bhopal
JYOTI JAFA
Really, Your Highness!
KHOKAR, PAINTAL, PANDIT & SINHA
Biographies of Indian Musicians
RALPH RUSSELL
Ghalib
V.G. KIERNAN
Poems by Faiz

Lotus. Collection

© Anil K. ]aggia 2000 © Saurabh Shukla 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher.

This edition first published 2000 The Lotus Collection An imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, G.K. Il Market New Delhi 110 048 Phones: 6442271, 6462782, 6460886 Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail] Website: rolibooks.com Also at Varanasi, Agra, ]aipur and the Netherlands

ISBN: 81-7436-109-X

Text Editor: Kishore Singh Cover Design: Inkspot Back Cover: Courtesy AFP (Agency France Press)

Dedication

On December 24, 1999, the passengersand crew of Indian Airlines Flightle 814 were taken hostage by a groupofjive hijackers.As the nation watchedthe horror unfold, three passengers werestabbed. Two of them survived theirinjuries, but Rupin Katyal succumbed tothis brutal act of terrorism.
This book is dedicated to the memory ofhis tragic death that robbed a father ofan only son, and a bride of her twenty-day-old husband.

Acknowledgements
I would like to sincerely acknowledge theconstant help and encouragement extended by my wife,Kusum and daughters Anupama and Aparna; mymother Shanti Jaggia for her blessings,and my nephewManoj for his help. Special thanks are due to MadhuDayal, S.S. Panesar, Y.K. Singh, O.P. Mahendroo,S.N Nigam, D. Sharan,R.N Tandon, RajinderKumar, Anil Sharma, M.P. Aggarwal and my dearfriends and colleagues at Indian Airlines. My gratitudeto Kishore Singh for his expert editing and myappreciation to Mr Pramod Kapoor and his entireteam at Roli Books.
—Anil Jaggia
I would like to thank Ma and Papa for showing methe way, Chhaya and Devendra Narain for theirconstant encouragement, Prriti for bringing out the bestin me, and Shweta and Anup for their support.
Thanks are also due to all those senior colleagues at The Indian Express and friends who gave theirvaluable insights, to Dr Amitabh Mattoo for his useiu!comments on the draft, to the entire team at RoliBooks that burned the midnight oil with us) andespecially to Pramod Kapoorfor ensuring that the bookcame out in record time. A special thanks to KishoreSingh for giving· the book itsfinal shape.
—Saurabh Shukla

Contents
1 HONEYMOON GONE SOUR
2 BLOOD IN THE AISLES
3 CHRISTMAS IN KANDAHAR
4 OPENING A CHANNEL TO THE TALIBAN
5 WAITING FOR RELIEF
6 MAKING LOVE TO THE ROGUES
7 BLIND DATE
8 WAR OF NERVES
9 THE FINAL DEAL
10 POSTSCRIPT
11 BLUNDERS GALORE

ANNEXURES




IC814: The Inside View
Red Cap and Burger were allocated executive class seats 2B and 3A. Doctor, Bhola and Shankar were booked on seats BC, 19G and 23G. In the map,these are identified as spots A, B, C, D and E.
The original seating for Rupin and Rachna Katyal (F and G), and David Johnson (H)was soon changed. The stabbings occurred in the executive class cabin. Later, theexecutive class cabin was used to contain the passengers' hand baggage and as adispensary.
In Kandahar, the flight crew was usually made to sit in rows 9 and 10 in the frontof the economy cabin, identified as J and K.



Cockpit seating
When Red Capforced his entry into the cockpit, he stood behind the Captain’s seat. After take-off from Lahore, he sat in the Observer’s seat. After landing at Kandahar, he used the cockpit as his office, usually sitting in the Captain’s chair.



1
December 24, 1999
HONEYMOON GONE SOUR

Two men came running down the aisle. “They kept shouting ‘Heads down, heads down’,” Subhash Kumar remembers with a shudder. Most passengers did not have time to react in their consternation, and so the hijackers began slapping them across their faces. Within moments the cabin had been subdued.
On board IC 813 to khathmandu
“Captain, doors armed, passengers briefed and strapped,” the cabin reported to the cockpit. “May I have the flight time, Sir?”
Captain Devi Sharan, who was piloting flight IC 813 to Kathmandu, responded: “One hour and thirty minutes. Please expedite your safety announcements.”
Co-pilot Rajinder Kumar spoke into the radio telephone with Delhi Ground Control: “Indian Airlines 813 ready to push back and starting.”
Ground Control: “Clear to push back and start facing east.”
Captain Sharan: “Brakes off, commence push back facing east.”
Flight IC 813 taxied towards runway 28 at Palam, preparatory to take-off, two hours and forty minutes behind schedule.
Excitement tinged the air, for it was, after all, the last week of the millennium. People all around the world were preparing to party the entire week. The next day would be the last Christmas of the millennium. The difference was tangible: in the way that people walked and looked at you, and in the manner in which even the normally suspicious Customs officials were strangely amiable.
We were not to know then that a totally different kind of excitement lay ahead of us: one that would severely test our patience and show us just how fragile our lives were. In a few hours from now, we would be offered a choice between disaster and death.
The crisp morning, however, gave us no clue to what lay ahead.
The previous evening, before boarding the flight to Hyderabad, I had promised my two daughters that we would spend Christmas eve together at home. In fact, I had even asked the younger of the two to pick up a suit from Karan Sabri of Villa Appearances.
“You will never change your tailor, will you?” my daughter had laughed, and I’d replied: “Darling, he’s one of the few tailors who gives me a good fit.”
After the layover at Hyderabad, I’d flown back this morning and was listed for another flight. New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport was exceedingly crowded—diplomats, tourists, businessmen, executives and students were heading back to their countries, while returning Indians were arriving in droves with their Christmas shopping.
I reported for duty at flight operations at Palam, and was told that I would be flying with Captain Devi Sharan and co-pilot Rajinder Kumar, the same team that had operated IC 939 back from Hyderabad. Seven of the eight cabin crew were also the same with only one additional crew member joining us at New Delhi. We were to fly IC 813/814 from Delhi to Kathmandu and back. Unfortunately, departure was delayed because the designated aircraft had developed an engineering snag. I did not like the delay. As a stickler for punctuality, I’m always irritated when a flight is pushed behind schedule. Besides, delayed flights mean that I have less time to spend with my wife and daughters. On the days that I come home late, my mother starts to worry. If the returning flight was very late, my daughters would grumble that I had broken my promise to them.
I was glad I had remembered to tell my wife to make sure a surprise Santa Claus was to be installed next to the Christmas tree my elder daughter had been decorating. My wife had grumbled that I was flying when, like most others, I too should have been with the family at home. “Your Operations must realise that you too have a family, and we also look forward to family get-togethers,” she had said. Even the goodbye peck on her cheek did little to improve her mood: “I’d appreciate a day off more than this,” she said tartly. When I gave my old mother a hug, she said what s