IC-814 plane hijacking is counted among worst terror attack India has had to endure. The five-day saga in December 1999 held the nation's breath with people all over the country turning to news bulletins when 24-hour news was not a phenomenon in India. For those who witnessed the saga, the five days felt like an eternity. The hijackers eventually freed the passengers travelling in that ill-fated Indian Airlines plane. But India had to release three of the most dangerous terrorists who, on their return to Pakistan set-up new terror outfits India continues to battle to this day.
Here's the timeline of Indian Airlines IC-814 plane hijack
December 24, 1999
4 pm: The plane, meant to travel from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport onboarded passengers at 4 pm. The 11 crew members prepared for a take-off.
The plane took to the skies and by 4:39 pm, it entered the Indian airspace.
4:39 pm: As one of stewards served refreshments to the pilots and turned to leave the cockpit, a man with a red balaclava barged in with a grenade in hand and a gun in another. He declared to the pilots that the plane was hijacked and everyone was at their mercy. By 4:53 pm, terrorists took over the plane. They ordered the captain to take the plane to Lahore.
4:56 pm: Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Delhi receives first intimation of the hijacking thanks to a coded message sent by IC-814 Captain Devi Sharan under the nose of the hijackers.
7 pm: The plane lands in Amritsar after ATC at Lahore airport refuses permission to land. At Amritsar, terrorists demand that the plane be refueled. Permission to refuel is denied by Indian authorities. Sensing that India might act against the hijacking, hijackers force captain to take-off for Lahore.
8:01 pm: The plane lands at Lahore airport. Permission to land is only granted after repeated pleas from the captain who said that fuel was so low that he'd have to crash land the plane.
The aircraft is refuelled in Lahore.
10:32 pm: The aircraft takes-off for Kabul, Afghanistan.
December 25, 1999
1:32 am: The aircraft lands in Dubai after Kabul airports denies permission to land saying night-time landing facilities were not available. After brief parley between Dubai authorities and the hijackers, 27 passengers are released.
6:20 am: The plane takes-off from Dubai for Kabul. It lands in Kabul at 8:33 am and stays there till the resolution of the stand-off.
From December 26 to December 31, intense negotiations took place between the Indian government and the hijackers, who initially demanded release of 36 terrorists and USD 200 million. The demands came down considerably during negotiations but in the end, India had to release Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Zargar and Omar Shaikh.
Masood Azhar later founded Jaish-e-Mohammed, the terrorist organisation responsible for many terrorist attacks in India including Pulwama terror attack which took place in 2019.
