A high-level team of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on Saturday, conducted a preliminary inquiry into the hijack scare created by the Air India Express pilot even as union civil aviation minister Ajith Singh gave a clean chit saying that the commander had sounded a general alert.
The team led by BCAS Chennai regional deputy security officer Sharath Srinivas visited the Thiru-vananthapuram international airport and examined the cockpit voice recorder, the report of the airport authority’s voice recording analysing unit, visuals inside the aircraft and audio video recordings at the air traffic control.
The team also met the staff at the airport besides reviewing the proceedings of the meeting headed by the DGP on Friday.
The team’s preliminary impression was that the pilot’s response was natural as the situation inside the aircraft had gone out of hand. The report is likely to be submitted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday.
But, with Ajith Singh stating that the pilot had only sounded an emergency alert and not a hijack alert, it will be interesting to see what stand the BCAS probe team that visited Thiruva-nanthapuram takes in its final report.
However, top police officials here reiterated that flight commander of Air India Express IX 4522, Rupali Waghmare had indeed pressed the hijack alert button. “She pressed the worldwide anti-aircraft hijacking code 7500. It was based on the hijack alert that the CISF and other security agencies at the airport invoked the emergency security plan,” a senior official said.
There’s also a view that the pilot might have tried to press emergency code 7700 but because of the chaos inside the cockpit, ended up pressing code 7500.
Meanwhile, assistant commissioner of police K.S. Vimal who is heading the police probe, met Srinivas and discussed details of the case registered with the Valiyathura police station.