Doubts over crisis management

By Pranab Dhal Samanta

NEW DELHI, OCT. 5. For all the references by the Civil Aviation authorities to the September 11 terrorist strikes in the U.S. as a justification for taking the anonymous call received by the Alliance Air office here on Wednesday night as seriously as they did, it is baffling that the air defence systems were not put on alert.

While the Defence authorities were in the know of the ``hijack'' from the military liaison unit posted at the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC), there was no message by the high-power Crisis Management Group (CMG) to alert the air defence systems in the initial hours of the ``hijack''.

Going by official narration of events, all the authorities concerned with managing the crisis were under the impression that the hijack was ``real'' for most part of the four-hour drama. If this was the case, then the CMG was dealing with a situation where a hijacked plane was headed for the Capital.

At that point, no contact had been established with the hijackers, no demands made, and the fear that the plane could be diverted at any time from the flight path was very much alive. It had an eerie resemblance to the methods adopted by the hijackers on September 11 in the U.S., the only exception being that the pilot was able to intimate the ATC here.

Yet the air defence system was not put on alert. If there were to be any deviation from the flight path by the plane on approaching Delhi, no fighter-aircraft or any other aspect of Delhi's elaborate air defence system was on alert. It is reliably learnt that it would have been quite impossible for the air defence system to respond immediately if any such request came along at the 11th hour.

Fortunately for those who handled this crisis, there are not many takers for the official version of what happened on Thursday. The list of questions being raised against top aviation security officials is only increasing by the day. And the only response so far to these has been that the Ahmedabad ATC probably garbled the message.

As Thursday's ``hijack'' continues to ``baffle'' many, serious doubts have arisen not just over the ability of the civil aviation authorities to manage a crisis, but also on whether they can recognise one when it comes along.

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Section  : National
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