Pilot: Hijackers Were To Blow Up Jet

Monday, January 03, 2000 3:19 PM EST

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- A flight attendant had just brought Captain Devi Saran a cup of tea 40 minutes after takeoff from Katmandu, Nepal, when a man wearing a ski mask burst into the cockpit, armed with a grenade and revolver.

``No movement,'' he ordered, putting the revolver behind the Indian Airlines pilot's right ear.

Soon another masked man came into the cockpit, saluted the first intruder as ``chief'' and said, ``Everything is under control.''

Five hijackers had taken over the New Delhi-bound plane.

Saran gave a detailed account Monday of the hijacking and the eight-day crisis that ended Dec. 31 in Afghanistan after India traded three prisoners for the 155 hostages.

Saran said he always considered security lax at Katmandu's airport. ``The airport is not even fenced,'' he said.

During the first 24 hours of the crisis, the plane touched down in four different airports. For most of that time, Saran had a gun to his head.

First, the hijacker ``chief'' told Saran, 37, to fly to Lahore, Pakistan. But air controllers there denied the plane permission to land.

When Saran told the hijackers he was running low on fuel, they became tense. Upon Saran's suggestion, the hijackers agreed to let the Airbus 300 refuel in the northern Indian city of Amritsar. But they grew restive, threatening to kill some passengers, as airport workers delayed the refueling.

``One of them came to the cockpit and said four Indian passengers have been killed,'' Saran said.

That was most likely when the hijackers stabbed to death Rippan Katyal, a passenger who apparently disobeyed orders not to remove his blindfold.

Suspecting that Indian commandos were preparing to storm the plane, the hijackers ordered Saran to take off immediately.

Once airborne, Saran contacted Lahore Air Traffic Control and was again denied permission to land. By then it was growing dark.

``I brought my plane down to 200 feet and decided to crash-land on a highway,'' he said. But suddenly seeing a crowd of people below, he pulled the plane up to 500 feet, Saran said.

``Seeing us in a desperate situation, the Lahore airport authorities switched on the runway lights and allowed us to land with barely one to two minutes of fuel left in the aircraft,'' he said.

At Lahore, Pakistani authorities denied Saran's request to accept wounded passengers and women and children, but they refueled the plane.

The plane took off again, and the ``chief'' told Saran to fly to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. But after being told by Kabul's control tower that there were no night landing facilities, the hijackers ordered Saran to go to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

As the plane changed course, air controllers at Kabul told Saran he could land in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, but he kept this information from the hijackers, hoping the crisis might end in Dubai.

``In any case, I didn't want to land in Afghanistan,'' Saran said. India doesn't recognize the Taliban administration that controls nearly 90 percent of Afghanistan.

Landing at an air base in Dubai early Dec. 25, the hijackers allowed some injured passengers, women and children to disembark. They also handed over Katyal's body to local authorities.

The plane then flew back to Afghanistan, landing in Kandahar, where it would spend the next seven days sitting on the tarmac.

The hijackers became more relaxed after landing there, and Saran and the crew were moved to the passenger cabin. From the cockpit, the hijackers negotiated with a United Nations representative. They demanded the release of 36 militants jailed in India, the return of the body of a dead rebel and $200 million.

The hijackers ordered food for themselves and the passengers when they felt hungry. On some days, there was only one meal.

The hijackers' mood swung wildly, depending on how the negotiations were going, Saran said. Several times, they threatened to kill everyone on board, and at other times they told the passengers jokes and stories.

On the morning of Dec. 30 -- the seventh day of captivity -- the hijackers announced that negotiations with the Indian team had failed. ``They asked the passengers to pray before they start killing them, beginning with the pilot,'' Saran said.

When 50 Taliban commandos surrounded the plane, the hijackers agreed to continue negotiate -- but only after the commandos were withdrawn.

If the talks broke down again, the hijackers said the plane would take off and they would blow it up at 20,000 feet, Saran said.

Two hours later, the hijackers announced that they had reached an agreement with the Indian government and that the hostages would be able to return home that evening or the next day.

On Dec. 31, as the hijackers left the plane for waiting cars -- part of their agreement with the Indian government -- they said good-bye and ``God willing, we'll see you again.''