Rajasthan: Man causes mid-flight scare with hijack hoax

A botched swindle and an escape plan gone horribly wrong got passengers and security personnel aboard an Air India flight at Jodhpur airport in a tizzy on Monday afternoon. For two hours after the flight with 169 passengers landed in Jodhpur, the pilots and crew were instructed to keep the door shut while armed personnel verified the credentials of the passengers.

They then arrested one Dinesh Suthar, a resident of Jalore in Rajasthan, and charged him with creating panic inside a mid-air flight by giving out false information to the crew. According to sources, the Jodhpur police and ATC were informed of the possibility of terrorists travelling on the flight.

“Dinesh had gone to Mysuru recently where he saw a poster announcing a monetary reward for information on a missing 15-year-old boy. Seeing the opportunity to make a quick buck, he made a call claiming to have seen the missing boy at a Jodhpur ashram. He promised to take the father there as soon as he handed over the promised reward. The father, Ashok, informed the Mysuru Police, and together they boarded a flight to Jodhpur,” a policeman said.

However, Dinesh wasn’t expecting the police to be coming along to Jodhpur. Realising he was out of options after the flight had already taken off, he told the flight crew mid-air that three men — who belonged to Pakistan and Bangladesh — were plotting a terror act and were forcing him to board the flight. The three men eventually turned out to be two policemen and the father of the missing teenager.

“A group of six passengers were talking among themselves saying something will happen on the flight. Crew members informed the pilot this, but when the flight landed at Jodhpur, they were all detained for further investigations. We don’t know what was the intention behind this, as that’s part of the investigation,” an Air India spokesperson said.