Bomb scare at Thiruvananthapuram airport; hijack attempt gone awry?

Preliminary investigations into the discovery of a bomb in the Kingfisher Airlines flight IT 4731 from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram suggest a hijack attempt that went awry.

Although the terror plot is yet to be confirmed, investigators do not rule out a Kandahar-type hijack to force the release of Indian Mujahideen extremists lodged in Kerala jails.

Points out a senior intelligence official, “The bomb was found next to the food and beverages galley in the rear of the ATR aircraft. In this type of aircraft, the luggage is kept next to the cockpit; it is not accessible to others, except to loaders and unloaders. The placement of the bomb next to food-trays suggests that someone was assigned to take it there and hijack the aircraft.”

“We will question the caterers. It seems to have been done in a hurry. There was no detonator, which indicates that someone with a detonator wanted to retrieve the bomb,” the official said.

Security agencies reckon the hijack attempt could be the handiwork of one of the Indian Mujahideen sleeper cells in India. “There are two sleeper cells in South India,” they say.

An airline official, who did not want to be named, said aviation authorities always woke up only after some incident occurred and were not proactive on the issue of passenger safety.

“Many lapses occur at airports but the government does not bother about them until something happens. Most airports have infrastructure for five stages of baggage checks but if a baggage passes the first stage – laser penetration to check for explosives – they do not bother about the four other checks,” he said.
Meanwhile, another airline official said that there was nothing new about the security measures suggested in the circular issued by the regional aviation authority. “We had been following them already,” he said.