Hijacking
The Indian Airlines flight 814 (VT-EDW) had 178 passengers on board (most of whom were Indian nationals) that were coming to India after vacationing in Nepal. It was hijacked on December 24, 1999, shortly after the aircraft entered Indian airspace at about 17:30 IST. The identities of the hijackers according to the Indian Government were:
- Ibrahim Azhar, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
- Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Karachi, Pakistan
- Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Karachi, Pakistan
- Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Karachi, Pakistan
- Shakir, Sukkur, Pakistan
Anil Sharma, the chief flight attendant on IC-814, later recalled that a masked, bespectacled man threatened to blow up the plane with a bomb and ordered Captain Devi Sharan to "fly west". The hijackers wanted Captain Sharan to divert the aircraft over Lucknow and head towards Lahore. However, there was insufficient fuel. Captain Sharan told the hijackers that they had to land in Amritsar, India.
Read more about this topic: Indian Airlines Flight 814