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NEW DELHI – India has suspended a pilot for accidentally sending a hijackalert to air traffic control during a domestic flight last month, theaviation authority said.
The AirAsia India plane, flying from the capital New Delhi to Srinagar,suffered a stalled engine and the captain told first officer Ravi Raj tosend an emergency code to alert the authorities about the situation.
Instead of the appropriate code 7700, Raj transmitted 7500 – the code for ahijacking – India’s Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in astatement on Friday (July 19).
Such a transmission is considered a major security alert across the world.Precise details of the response from Indian authorities during the incidentwere not available, but local media reported last month that procedures forhandling a hijacking were set in motion.
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The Airbus A320 airliner safely landed later in the city of Chandigarh.
Raj was found guilty of “negligent conduct” and suspended for three months,the DGCA said, and the captain of the flight was also warned to be morevigilant.
AirAsia India, a joint venture between Malaysian low-cost giant AirAsia andIndia’s Tata Sons, told the Press Trust of India news agency that it hadreceived the “final remarks on an event where a flight from Delhi toSrinagar diverted due to a technical issue”, but did not provide furtherdetails. -APP/AFP
