A Real Tale Of The Hijack (1981) : Hijacker Meets Pilot After 25 Years

An aeroplane of a scheduled flight hits an Army truck on landing at night. It is seized by 44 hardcore mercenaries who after having failed in a coup against the government of Seychelles use the bruised and unairworthy aeroplane with 65 passengers as their getaway. They force the crew to fly them out to then apartheid land of South Africa an unknown destination for the crew. The crew obeys the orders of hijackers and handles the situation with a great sense of proficiency and end the ordeal of the passengers and crew. This is a first-hand narration of a hijack by the pilot of the flight himself. About the Author Umesh Saxena is an ex Indian Air Force Pilot before joining Air India in 1971. He joined IAF post the Indo-China war of 1962 and was commissioned as Pilot Officer in April 1964. During his short stunt of about 8 years in IAF he carried out many trials in drops of vehicles of the Army in collaboration with the local Army Para Brigade. He met with a near-fatal incident of a Runaway Prop on Take Off run from Leh in Ladakh which he providentially and professionally handled successfully. In Air India he fared well as a Copilot & Commander on Boeing 707 all 747 versions (200 300 & 400) and Airbus 300. He was quite popular among crew members for his friendly yet firm and professional attitude. As an executive in AI he ably handled administration crew scheduling flight planning & air safety. He actively participated in many safety audits conducted by national regulatory body (DGCA) and ICAO. He implemented the FOQA (Flight Operations Quality Assurance) program successfully with the help of NAL (National Aeronautical Laboratory Bangalore) as required by the DGCA. Today at 76 he is fondly remembered with esteem by many superannuated and serving AI personnel.