Air India vs. The Taleban

[El Grifo]

I am just hearing from a colleague in Germany of an attempted Hijack of an Air India flight by Taleban. The story goes that the flightdeck was kept firmly closed and the Taleban wiped out a dozen or so passengers in a fit of pique. Truth or Fiction I cannot tell. Any Clues ???

[rsoman]

Air India has stopped flying to Frankfurt for some time now.What you are hearing appears to be fiction.

[rsoman]

And nothing reported on any other Air India flight also. If there was any thing like this,I guess it would have been on the local press in no time.

[Andy_S]

Actually this did happen - but in December 1999.

Pro Taliban hijackers took control of an Air India flight en-route from Kathmandu to Delhi and made the crew fly it to Kabul and subsequently Kandahar. One passenger was stabbed to death and several cabin crew wounded.

The indian government were forced to free several jailed islamic militants in order to secure the release of the passengers and crew. The hijackers simply vanished, although one of the gang is rumoured to have been among the team that flew into the World Trade Centre.

[StbdD]

Actually, according to Reuters, this happened about an hour ago to an Alliance Air flight from Bombay to New Delhi. The hijackers have apparently not been identified at this time though.

[ 03 October 2001: Message edited by: StbdD ]

[Airbubba]

>>Pro Taliban hijackers took control of an Air India flight en-route from Kathmandu to Delhi and made the crew fly it to Kabul and subsequently Kandahar.<<

This earlier hijacking was Indian Airlines, _not_ Air India.

Here's an official account of the hijacking:
http://www.indianembassy.org/archive/IC_814.htm

[El Grifo]

Partial fact follows rumour, or reality is "delayed"
The original message from my colleague was that Taleban had taken over an Indian Airline on the Subcontinent and the Flightcrew had denied them access to the Flightdeck. This had seriously pissed the Hijackers, who then started murdering the passengers in a fit of pique.We watch and wait (and wonder)

[Rollingthunder]

Now, this thing is being reported as a seriously bungled "security exercise"

ATC actually advised the flight deck crew that the flight was being hijacked. They locked the door thinking the hijackers were in the cabin. The cabin crew and pax thought the hijackers were in the cockpit.Aircraft lands, no one on the ground knows it's an exercise, and it's four hours before things are straightened out.

A security exercise, in-flight, with pax on board?

Words fail me and heads should roll.

[ 03 October 2001: Message edited by: Rollingthunder ]

[El Grifo]

Hang on Girls, let me get this thing straight. I heard this story from associate in Germany on the afternoon of the 2nd October. Check my first posting. It is now alleged to have taken place on the 3rd of October.Delayed release of information or eh, "second sight"