Opinion December 26, 1977, Forty Years Ago: Air India Hijack

The man identified as Josef Homolov, 31, was turned over to the Italian police.

A Czech-Canadian man bolted into the cockpit of an Air India Boeing 747 near Rome on Christmas day and commandeered the aircraft for over two hours, the airport police said. The crew overpowered the man and the flight 105 from Bombay landed safely at Rome’s Fiumicino airport. The man identified as Josef Homolov, 31, was turned over to the Italian police. “Shah Jehan”, the first Air India plane to be involved in such an incident, took off for London at 16.50 hours 1ST, airline sources said. in Bombay. The skyjacker was jailed on charges of air pricacy, kidnapping and trafficking in counterfeit currency. According to the captain, A.N. Kapur, it was clear that Homolov intended to crash the plane. The skyjacker told reporters after he was taken into custody: “People in Bombay saw me changing and saw I had a lot of. They got on the plane to rob me so I forced the plane down in .” Dressed in jeans and a sports shirt, he appeared to be mentally strained.

Vinoba’s Maun Vrat

Bhoodan leader Acharya Vinoba Bhave went on a year-long “maun” (silence) soon after addressing a conference of Gita Prachar workers in his Paonar ashram, near Wardha. He will neither talk nor communicate with the outer world for one year. The meeting of the ashramites was so touchy that tears rolled down as Acharya Bhave begged pardon of each and every one in case any one felt offended because of his straight-talk. He said December 25 was a Triveni sangam as Christmas, Id-ul-zuha and Geeta Jayanthi were being celebrated on the pious day.

JP On Revolution

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Jayaprakash Narayan admitted that corrupt elements had crept into Bihar movement and his concept of total revolution was being narrowly interpreted by political parties supporting the movement. JP said that “total revolution” meant complete restructuring the socio-economic set-up and not a mere change of men in power.