A hijack scare sounded by an Air India Express flight commander led to dramatic scenes at the airport here and at Nedumbassery on Friday, putting 165 passengers, including women and infants, to a harrowing eight hours.
Six passengers, who led the protests, were frisked at Thiruvananthapuram airport and were questioned after they landed at Nedumbassery airport. As co-passengers threatened not to leave, the airport officials let them go.
Passengers said the trouble started when Air Indian Express flight IX 4522 commander Rupali Wagmare decided to sign off, leaving the rest of the crew and passengers on the flight at Thiruvan-anthapuram airport.
The flight from Abu Dhabi, scheduled to land at Kochi at 3.30 am, was already delayed and had to be diverted to Thiruvanan-thapuram owing to bad weather. It landed in Thiruvananthapuram at 6.40 am.
There was no word of the impending delay and passengers waited patiently for the flight to take off for Kochi till 8.40 am.
Commander Rupali Wagmare then announced that her duty was over and that passengers could alight and proceed to Kochi by road since the airline had not made any alternative arrangements.
DGP K.G. Balasubra-manian said the commander complained that a few passengers had stepped into the cockpit, threatening to kill her if she did not take off for Kochi.
The commander pressed the hijack alert code “7500” on the transponder following the tiff with passengers. Subsequently the emergency security rules of the airport were invoked, CISF personnel and local police entered the aircraft, and shifted the passengers to a bus.