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Hijacking threat force Indian plane to land |
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July 23, 2000
NEW DELHI (AP) - An Indian Airlines jet made an unscheduled landing in a central Indian town following a report that four persons might hijack the plane when it was flying from Bombay, officials said. No hijackers were found among the 81 passengers aboard flight IC169, which landed in Raipur, a town in Madhya Pradesh state, according to airport officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Police surrounded the plane and searched all the passengers and their carryon luggage. Police dogs sniffed for explosives aboard the plane, Susobhan Banerjee of the government's Bureau of Civil Security, Bombay, told Zee-TV network. The plane, which landed around noon at Raipur, 950 kilometers (590 miles) southeast of New Delhi, left three hours later for Bhubaneshwar, capital of eastern Orissa state, on its scheduled flight. Air traffic controllers in Bhubaneshwar received a report that four persons might hijack the plane when it was flying from Bombay, said an airport official, who asked not to be identified further. The official refused to give details but said he passed on the information to the Raipur airport as the plane was flying close to that city. Last Christmas, an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked by five gunmen shortly after it took off from Nepal's capital, Katmandu, while flying to New Delhi. The plane hopscotched across India, Pakistan and Dubai before landing in Kandahar in Afghanistan. The hijackers let off the passengers in return for the release of three men held in Indian jails. Several of Indian Airlines' planes have been hijacked over the years. The government is concerned over lax security arrangements in many of its airports. |