An Ariana Afghan Airlines flight from Delhi airport was today stopped from taking off and the plane cordoned off after its pilot sent a hijack alert. The captain later said the alarm had been sent by mistake
The Delhi-Kandahar flight, with 124 passengers and nine crew members, was taxiing for take-off at at 3.30 pm when the airport authorities got the hijack alert from it. The plane was taken to the isolation bay and surrounded by security men.
However, it later emerged that the captain was telling the co-pilot about the procedure for alert when the alarm was accidentally sent to the air traffic control (ATC).
A civil aviation security official said the plane was cleared for departure once it was found that it was an error by the captain of the plane. Passengers had to go through secondary security checks before the plane was cleared for departure.
Bureau of Civil Aviation security director general Kumar Rajesh Chandra told Hindustan Times that the plane’s captain Pokai Naomi told security officials that the airline staff in Delhi informed them of plans to hijack the plane.
While briefing his co-pilot about entering Code 7500 to inform the ATC about the hijack, Naomi inadvertently entered the code leading to hijack scare, said the official, citing a letter by the captain about the incident.