Indian hijack was 'false alarm'

Police and troops at New Delhi's international airport

Passengers aboard an Indian plane that was reported hijacked have left the aircraft at New Delhi airport.

The Indian civil aviation minister Shahnawaz Hussain said that the reported attack had been "a false alarm".

The Alliance Air Boeing 737 was on an internal flight from Bombay to New Delhi when it was reported seized by two hijackers.

The situation was caused by an anonymous phone call to air traffic controllers in Ahmedabad and confusion in the aircraft's cabin and cockpit, Mr Hussain said.

He said the pilot was told about the phone call and sealed his cockpit door.

He then flew the plane to New Delhi, skipping the scheduled stop in Ahmadabad.

Comedy of errors

What followed was a comedy of errors, in which the pilots thought the hijackers were in the passenger cabin, while air traffic control and the pilots thought the hijackers were in the cockpit.

Passengers were phoning their relatives from mobile phones, saying they knew nothing about a hijacking.

Senior Indian cabinet ministers, meanwhile, had convened at the airport for a crisis management meeting.

Mr Hussain would not say whether the entire episode was a security drill. He said a statement would be made later Thursday.

Security scare

Mr Hussain said the plane was carrying 46 passengers and six crew, revising earlier reports that there were 54 passengers on board.

The plane was taken to an isolated area at Indira Gandhi International Airport and surrounded by police and army after it landed in New Delhi at 0100 Thursday (1930GMT Wednesday).

As a precaution, the aircraft's tyres were deflated and a fuel tanker was parked in front of it so it could not take off.

There were reports that the plane might fly to Pakistan, and all airports in the country were reportedly closed.

Alliance Air is a domestic subsidiary of Indian Airlines.

The world has been on high security alert since the 11 September attacks in the US, when four planes in US domestic flights were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center's twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.