Mock to mockery

It was meant to be a perfect script. A terrorist outfit called the Northern Liberation Front smuggles in five hijackers8212;actually from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security BCAS8212;aboard Alliance Air flight CD 7469 on the Raipur-Delhi-Nagpur-Delhi route. Armed with dummy explosives like grenades and fake guns, they hijack the plane just before it lands at Delhi on the way back from Nagpur.

On landing they ask for refuelling to fly the aircraft to Dhaka while making demands for the release of some terrorists and a couple of million dollars from the Government. The whole affair was to have lasted a little over two hours, allowing the BCAS to test the response of all the agencies concerned. The exercise was to be called off just before the NSG commandos stormed the plane.

The hijack call was to come at 11.50 am it actually came seven minutes later. Passengers were to be kept hostage maximum for 20 minutes. Immediately on landing, the old and infirm were to be released8212;in this case 31 of the 127 passengers were let off, followed by women and children.

8216;8216;The passengers would have been offloaded in the first 20 minutes. But it was to be done in batches to keep up the impression that there were some passengers still aboard the aircraft,8217;8217; said an official.

It8217;s learnt that only the President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Director of Intelligence Bureau, the Civil Aviation Secretary and the Delhi Police Commissioner were informed in advance. Even Minister of State for Civil Aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudy was personally told just before he boarded the plane from Kochi to Delhi.

But even before the demands were made, there was a leak and agencies which were to be tested knew this was a mock exercise. Flight captain R. Mohan8212;who was the only person among the crew to know of the plan8212;is said to have complained of the lackadaisical response of the security agencies. Even during the first 10 minutes, the Central Industrial Security Force commandos committed the cardinal mistake of approaching the plane from the front.

As per the drill, the CISF Quick Reaction Team should have approached the plane from its tail8212;their immediate job being to immobilise the aircraft by deflating the tyres. This was not done.

The other part of the drill was to place a fire tender in front of the aircraft so that it did not attempt a take-off. A jeep was placed and, according to what the Captain told officials later, it was so far away that he could have easily manoeuvred the plane.

The idea was to test the capabilities of the Aerodrome Central Committee comprising the Airport Director, BCAS officials and DGCA among others. But as the news spread, some of the members did not even bother to show up. For instance, there was no representative from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

On being contacted, a spokesperson for Rudy said the minister would not like to comment as the matter was 8216;8216;sensitive8217;8217;.