Mumbai: An apparently mentally unstable man caused a major mid-air scare on a Delhi-Mumbai flight on Thursday morning when he claimed he was a Pakistani and that there was a bomb on the aircraft. And then, flashing a can of juice which he said contained the bomb, he demanded that the plane be taken to Karachi.
The cabin crew quickly subdued the man, Haryana resident Sanjay Mallik, and kept him in the rear till the plane landed in Mumbai at 11.45am, on schedule. The Central Industrial Security Force took Mallik into custody at Sahar airport.
Hailing from Baliala village in Ratia subdivision of Fatehabad, 28-year-old Sanjay Mallik is said to be mentally disturbed and under treatment by a psychiatrist at Ganganagar.
The plane’s commander did not sound the terror alert, but asked Air Traffic Control in Mumbai for security cover. Sources said the crew knew the man was bluffing because he claimed the bomb was in a can of orange juice that had been served by the airline itself.
A full security blanket shrouded Mumbai airport’s tarmac area after the pilot of Indigo flight 6E 181 sounded the alert. The flight, carrying 167 passengers, landed safely. No bomb detection drill was carried out at the airport, but officials carried out an antisabotage sweep on the plane.
The CISF later handed Mallik over to the airport police. An investigator said Mallik apparently wanted to get the airhostess’s attention. He also told officers that if he’d been a cricketer, he would have done better than Tendulkar. ‘Family unaware of Mallik’s Delhi trip’
The hijack drama on board the Indigo flight from Delhi to Mumbai began unfolding about 30 minutes before the flight was to land at Mumbai. Haryana resident Sanjay Mallik, 28, asked the airhostess for some water, which she gave him. Moments later, he asked for orange juice, which she again served him. This time, Mallik drank the juice and then told the airhostess that there was a bomb in the empty can. He then stood up in his seat — 28 D, near the rear of the aircraft — and shouted that there was a bomb on board.
‘‘Then he kept repeating that he was a Pakistani and the aircraft should be diverted to Karachi immediately,’’ a security official said. ‘‘He yelled he wanted to do something for his country.’’
The airhostess and a nearby passenger tried to calm Mallik, but to no avail. As per the standard operating procedure, the cabin crew then informed the commander about the miscreant. Mallik was escorted by cabin crew to the rear of the aircraft and made to sit separately. A MIAL spokesperson said, ‘‘A passenger named Sanjay Mallik was arrested by CISF on landing at 11.45am.” CISF probe revealed that Mallik hails from Haryana and his family was unaware of his trip to Delhi.
