Anti-hijack drill at CSIA

An anti-hijack drill was held at the CSIA from 1.54 pm to 3.22 pm on Friday. The exercise was chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of the state government. The exercise came less than a week after an intelligence input by central agencies warned about a possible terror strike using a small plane.

A spokesperson for the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said the drill was held next to the secondary runway and flight operations were as per schedule on the primary runway. “The runway remains closed for routine maintenance on Fridays. We decided to hold the exercise near this runway so that air traffic does not get affected,” said the spokesperson.

A bus was used to represent a hijacked plane and MIAL and CISF personnel posed as passengers,crew and hijackers.

“The exercise,which was to assess the preparedness of all security teams at the airport in dealing such crisis situations,ended successfully,” said the spokesperson. ENS