Editor's Note
What happens to an aircraft after each flight and after engines are shut down for refuelling and starting a new flight ?
Many readers will realise how easy it is to find a leak or dent that will ground the aircraft. But if the right guys are not in the loop how can anyone do what can easily be done? Hijackers knew nothing about such matters. The Capt can explain the serious danger of Fire / Engine failure if the leak / dent / tyre deflation is ignored.
The brother-in-law factor must be highlighted and the media must demand the identity of the man in Delhi and the man inside 814.
Kindly read the article to know more of what the author ,Gp Capt AG Bewoor, has to say .
Editor ,MVI
1. Have you noticed that everything about the hijack concentrates all our attention to who the hijackers were, their names or code names, the landing and takeoff from Amritsar and the exchange of jailed terrorists. The impact of the media coverage and the huge pressures that families brought upon the negotiators / govt is also just touched upon. The media does not want to accept their foolishness in giving moment to moment live coverage. TV channels had found a new strength and immense power of telling it as it was happening. Not one editor / manager / anchor / owner asked themselves are we doing it right? Who were these TV personalities 24 years back? They are still around.
Why is no one asking these men / women questions? What was their cruel and dubious role in the end result of 814 taking off from Amritsar and the release of Masood? Which media platform has the guts to start this investigation and hold an open debate on TV? Their silence is proof of their dirty complicity in this shame brought upon India. If the media wants everyone else to be forthright, then set an example and crucify those who forced the govt to do what it did. Who tied the shackles around the feet of our Govt? Media did, it was not the public as the media manager will say. Media cannot cry and take shelter behind their favourite words, "don't shoot the messenger". Our super smart media messenger must know when to shut up and hold back, and when to go ahead. Indian media has not learnt it even today, 25 years later. Pity is it not?
2. Not one person has asked what happened in Kathmandu. That is where the first terrible lapse happened. How come our intelligence and their close liaison with Nepal failed to stop the hijackers from getting arms aboard 814? It was known then, as it is well known now, that Pak terrorists find safe haven inside Nepal. That IB, RAW, Foreign Office, Mil Int, failed to get any alarms and warnings is a blunder of huge proportions. We have neglected that point of entry into 814 which eventually ended in Kandahar. Those who were in charge at Kathmandu on 24 Dec 99 are still available in Nepal and we have ignored that entry point and kept it usable by Pak terrorists once again. Most airlines fly to Kathmandu from India and back every day.
3. Finally, the departure from Amritsar. It is no use saying the brother-in-law or cousin, or sister, uncle of someone very powerful was responsible. If even after 25 years we cannot take names, what a wretched condition are we in? Look at our weakness, it is pitiable and Pak is laughing at us for not being able to give names. Worse, the new generation that will run India till 2047 is drawing wrong lessons when we talk in riddles of sister / brother-in-law / uncle / cousin. Here the media wants all curtains of secrecy torn away, the Supreme Court talks of the primacy of Media in democracy, veterans are screaming about Kargil and revealing gross failures with names and dates; yet we cannot name the passenger and his powerful relation in India that permitted 814 to take off from Amritsar? I do not know the name. Media barons know, but are crippled to tell.
Many others may also know, but not one of us has the courage to tell India that this person was the cause of this colossal humiliation India suffered? Then what freedom to report are the media wanting? If in truth some guy in Delhi overrode everyone and let 814 go to Kandahar, he must be identified and asked to justify his actions? Is he around? Not one discussion talks of this person and not one brave journo / reporter / anchor / manager / owner has the guts to tell India. Nor anyone who was privy to this truth is talking. Can the Supreme Court force the name to be revealed? Does the SC want to do it? Can SC do it?
4. These are the issues that we must demand revelation from those who know. Govt will not tell, neither will RAW / IB / NSG / CRPF / Punjab Police. The Stn Cdr of Amritsar Base does not control or interfere with movement of civil aircraft as long as they do not violate the laws of our land. As far as he was concerned, 814 landed, asked for refuelling from Indian Oil, it was given, 814 asked for takeoff, it was given. For the ATC duty officer what wrong had 814 done? Every day and night, civil aircraft land, refuel and take off. How was 814 different? That IAF Base Commander was never in the loop. It is speculative what he would have done had he been placed inside the loop. Possibly 814 would have been incapacitated to even taxi out. Putting crash tenders / fuel tankers / heavy vehicles in a hijack situation would have brought extreme violence from the hijackers. But deflated tyres, fuel leak, oil leak, hydraulic leak, bird hit on wing or engine intake, there are hundreds of things that could have been arranged to disallow 814 from taxying out.
How much did the hijackers know about aircraft operations and its intricacies? What did they know about how many small things that can go wrong and aircraft cannot fly? After every flight the engineers carry out a post flight inspection cum pre-flight check of the aircraft. This is standard procedure and cannot be violated or done away with. For refuelling the engines must have been shut down. Visual inspection with torches is always done to check that the inlet turbine blades of the Compressor are undamaged. Where were our anti hijack forces? Were any of them allowed to talk to the Captain and speak in aviation language to suggest a route for incapacitation of 814? Or was the whole drama within the grip of political masters and relatives of passengers?
5. Then we have not discussed the risk of hijackers killing hostages if they were stuck in Amritsar. Where was the Indian expertise in negotiating with hijackers? None existed and no one had bothered to create such a team. Not one Indian had gone abroad to get trained by say Germans, French, Italians, British, Israelis, Saudis, or whoever had such forces in place. Which takes me back to 1993, when India had two hijackings and both fizzled out.
I was then COO Palam and attended the meeting at Delhi airport where the Secy Aviation / DGCA and a host of other officials met and they would speak with the captain of the aircraft. The group incl reps from all our Intel agencies. Their bosses were in another meeting with Cabinet Secy at some other location. Now the flaw, as I see it. Because these two hijacks fizzled out, there was no effort to bolster our anti-hijack forces for the future. It remained cursory, a sham, and the wrong people were made responsible to tackle and handle aircraft hijacking. This was Mid 1993, six years later, 814 was hijacked to Kandahar and while the aircraft was on ground at Amritsar, we did not know what to do, how to do it, who will do it. Most important, how will interference from political masters, public, media, citizens, babus, be screened and ignored by the Task Force commander. I cannot comment on NSG and how well trained they were on aircraft hijack situations in 1999, but they did perform brilliantly at Taj Mahal hotel in 2008. That, despite the brazen interference from Barkha Dutt that helped the terrorists. Has she apologised to the NSG?
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