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12 June 2019

Air Asia flight suffers snag, pilots send hijack alert by mistake


Air Asia flight suffers snag, pilots send hijack alert by mistake
Saurabh Sinha | TNN | Updated: Jun 11, 2019, 8:04 IST



NEW DELHI: The pilot of a domestic flight set the Indian security establishment rolling to follow the standard operating procedure for a hijacking after he mistakenly sent out an alert for hijack instead of a snag.

 The flight was bound for Srinagar from Delhi. Before the mistake could be realized, the hijack protocol was set in motion and the flight was diverted to Chandigarh.

The drama unfolded when AirAsia's flight I5-715 left Delhi for Srinagar with 173 passengers and two infants at 6.03am on Sunday. The Airbus A320 aircraft, after 50 minutes of take-off, saw its left engine stall in-flight and started losing altitude. By this time, the aircraft had crossed Asari point in Punjab, beyond which Indian Air Force is in charge of all air traffic control (called military control).

The crew had wanted to send an alert for the snag but inadvertently transmitted the hijack code. "At 6.52am, vigilant military controllers saw the emergency code being transmitted from the AirAsia India aircraft that was also descending from its assigned flight level of 34,000 feet without clearance. A few minutes later, Air Asia pilots told the controllers that the A320's left engine had stalled; that they had sent the wrong code by mistake and finally that they wanted to return to Delhi," said a source.
However, the protocol for dealing with a hijack had been set in motion by the time the pilot clarified the mistake. Accordingly, the crew was asked to divert to Chandigarh, where it landed safely as twin-engined planes can land on one engine. The passengers were flown to Srinagar later on Sunday.
An AirAsia India spokesperson said "I5-715 operating from Delhi to Srinagar on June 9, 2019, encountered a technical problem en route. The crew carried out all necessary actions and diverted to Chandigarh. We are working with regulatory bodies to assist with the investigation of this incident. All guests were served lunch and refreshments during the halt."
"The flight from Chandigarh to Srinagar departed at 4.40pm in the (Sunday) evening. We reiterate that we place safety and security foremost in all aspects of operations and apologize for the inconvenience caused," the airline spokesperson added.

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