NEW DELHI: Memories of the December 1999 Kandahar hijack came alive at Delhi Airport on Saturday afternoon when the captain of an Afghan airliner taxiing to fly to that city was briefing his co-pilot what to do in the event the aircraft is hijacked. The Ariana Afghan Airlines commander was doing so as he had reportedly been informed about a hijack alert here.
What was supposed to be just a practice exercise in the cockpit ended up as a real scare as the captain of FG-312 actually sent a distress message of being hijacked to Delhi air traffic control (ATC) that activated emergency response at IGIA. The Airbus A-310 with 124 passengers (including an infant) and nine crew members was asked to immediately stop from proceeding for take off and instead told to taxi to an isolation bay at the airport around 4pm.