Two days before the first anniversary of 9/11, a mid-air nightmare exposed gaping holes in the Mumbai airport security. An Indian national, armed with a knife, reportedly attempted to “hijack” an Air-Seychelles flight (Mumbai-Maldives-Seychelles) before he was overpowered by the airline crew.The suspected hijacker has been identified as C Sasiraj, an Indian passport holder, said officials at the Mumbai airport. Later at a press conference, Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police M N Singh said the 32-year-old’s passport was issued at Chennai. Sasiraj took out a knife and brandished it 20 minutes before the plane landed in Maldives. There was no violence and he was overpowered. He is being interrogated in Maldives, Singh added.Sasiraj was armed with a six-inch knife and managed to board the Mumbai-Maldives-Seychelles Flight No 017, a Boeing 737, which took off from Mumbai airport at 3.15 a.m. on Monday. With 72 passengers on board, the flight was to touch down at Maldives at around 5 a.m. where seven of them were to alight.However, 20 minutes before the landing, Sasiraj brandished a knife and rushed towards the cockpit.‘‘But he never got close to the cockpit. The crew disarmed him immediately and he was tied to a seat,’’ said Captain David Savy, executive chairman of Air Seychelles. No one was injured, Savy added. The flight then took off for Seychelles, seven hours later. Airport Authority of India officials in Mumbai remained tight-lipped about the incident throughout the day claiming that no information had reached 12 hours after the incident. ‘‘There was some problem on the flight as one person has been apprehended. But we don’t know what happened,’’ said Sudhir Kumar, director, Mumbai airport, at 4.30 p.m.He didn’t comment on security arrangements in the airport as they had no information on what happened onboard. The Commissioner of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Tushar Kant Mitra, is arriving here from New Delhi tomorrow to investigate the matter.A contingent of about 1,950 CISF paramilitary personnel replaced the Mumbai police guarding the Mumbai airport on August 21. Mumbai police have only 20 personnel left at the airport and they too will be withdrawn on September 19. Only the immigration clearance duty stays with the police.Passengers pass through three security check points manned by the police/CISF security and the airline security. ‘‘It’s surprising that the man managed to pass through all three security rings,’’ said an AAI official who added that there was no ladder-point security check for the morning flight to Seychelles.A senior official at Mumbai airport also said Sasiraj was not frisked properly. The weapon could have been strapped to his calf or waist, officials added. And, the metal detector was not functional when the passenger was cleared. ‘‘In normal circumstances, the metal detector lets off a beep even if a coin or key is on the passenger,’’ the official pointed out.
