Desai - ruling the roost Desai - ruling the roost

In retrospect, the mid-air drama on board Indian Airlines flight 410 which was hijacked on December 20, eventually took on overtones of a black political comedy. The Boeing 737 with 126 passengers aboard (including two former ministers of Indira Gandhi's Emergency regime A.K. Sen and Dharam Bir Sinha) lifted off from Lucknow airport at 5.45 p.m. on the last leg of its journey from Calcutta to Delhi.

None of the passengers took any notice of the two young men who rose from their seats in the 15th row and moved casually towards the cockpit 15 minutes before the aircraft was due to touch down at Delhi's Palam Airport. The bearded member of the duo, listed on the passenger manifest as Bhola Nath Pandey, politely asked the flight purser, G.V. Dey, if they could visit the cockpit. Dey said he would communicate their request to the captain, M.N. Battiwala.

As Dey was about to enter the cockpit, one of the men grabbed airhostess Indira Thakuri's elbow while his companion tried to force his way into the cockpit. However, the self-locking mechanism on the magnetic door of the cockpit clicked into place. Undeterred, the two men threw their weight against the door until it flew open, and disappeared inside.

By now, the passengers and cabin crew had realized that something was amiss, "As expected," stated Lemkit Foning, 27, the flight's second airhostess, "the commander's first announcement came over the public address system within minutes, saying that we had been hijacked and were flying to Patna. A few seconds later, his second announcement informed us that we were headed for Varanasi instead."

Hijackers Bhola Nath Pandey (right) and Devendra Pandey - toy-gun and cricket ball Hijackers Bhola Nath Pandey (right) and Devendra Pandey - toy-gun and cricket ball

"This was done after wasting a lot of breath," the greying, six-foot pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Captain Battiwala told India Today in his Park Circus apartment in Calcutta. "From beginning to end it was a horrible task explaining to those idiots that there was such a thing called an aircraft's range of flight. First, they demanded to be flown to Nepal. When I told them, particularly the crazier of the two who kept pointing a pistol at my head, that we were not carrying that much fuel, they demanded to be flown to Bangladesh. I bet they had forgotten their schoolroom geography."

Meanwhile, back in the main cabin the passengers had calmed down after the initial nervousness and when the two hijackers emerged, some even jokingly requested to be flown to Kathmandu instead of Varanasi. The hijackers, however, were in no mood for frivolity and immediately started delivering impassioned speeches in Hindi dwelling on Indira Gandhi's arrest the day before and the "vindictiveness" of the Janata Party. They proclaimed themselves as Youth Congress(I) members (a claim that has since been denied by Congress(I) leaders) and stated that they were "Gandhians" and "non-violent" and had no desire to harm the passengers.

The speech was interspersed with cries of "Indira zindabad" and "Sanjay zindabad". A section of the passengers even applauded the speech when it ended, though there were catcalls as well.

Desai's Advice: Though none of the passengers took the hijacking really seriously, there were occasions when the two men, later identified as Bhola Nath Pandey, 27, and Devendra Pandey, 28 (no relations), could easily have been overpowered, but nobody made any such move. At one point, the hijackers refused to let the passengers use the toilets, until A.K. Sen, former Law Minister, yelled at them: "Shoot me if you like, I'm going to the toilet."

By this time the aircraft had landed at Varanasi, and taxied to a corner of the runway. The hijackers demanded to speak to UP Chief Minister, Ram Naresh Yadav. Yadav was contacted and at first refused to oblige, but after instructions from Prime Minister Morarji Desai, took off for Varanasi in the state Government's Cessna aircraft. Meanwhile, the hijackers had informed the district authorities on the plane's wireless that they had four demands, the main one being the unconditional release of Mrs Gandhi from jail.

The negotiations between Yadav and the hijackers began with the two Pandeys demanding that Yadav talk to them aboard the aircraft. Yadav in turn asked them to release the foreigners and women passengers. Prior to Yadav's arrival, one of the passengers, S.K. Mody had opened the rear door of the aircraft and jumped out without anyone inside being the wiser. The negotiations continued throughout the night, with Yadav, on Desai's specific instructions, refusing to give in to any of the hijackers' demands.

Father's Appeal: At around 6 a.m. the passengers complained that the aircraft was getting unbearably stuffy. The hijackers allowed them to open the rear doors. Inside the cockpit, Captain Battiwala pulled back the emergency chute-release lever. Seeing the chute drop down from the doors, a few of the passengers scrambled down to the tarmac, followed shortly after, by almost half the passengers aboard. Eventually, about 60 passengers had disembarked.

By this time, the father of one of the hijackers had arrived at Varanasi airport and spoke to his son over the wireless. The father's voice shatterred the bubbles of heroism, and the two men meekly walked out of the aircraft and shouting pro-Indira Gandhi slogans, surrendered to the waiting authorities. India's third hijack and its first "Gandhian" one was over. "I wonder which Gandhi the hijackers meant," mused Captain Battiwala; "the departed one or the contemporary one."

- Dilip Bobb and Arul B. louis in New Delhi, Sumit Mitra in Calcutta and Najmul Hasan in Lucknow