Anti-hijack mock drill held in Vizag

Visakhapatnam: An anti-hijack and mass casualty evacuation drill was conducted at Visakhapatnam Airport by INS Dega. The objective of the exercise is to test the efficacy of contingency plans and procedure to deal with hijack threat and subsequent evacuation.

The hijack exercise was conducted with a mock situation created for initiating coordinated actions by various stakeholders including Marine Commandos (MARCOS), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), National Security Guard (NSG), Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the State government agencies.

As part of the exercise, a scenario of inbound aircraft pilot reporting of a possible hijack by about seven armed men to Duty Air Traffic Control Officer of Visakhapatnam Airport and his intentions of coming for an emergency landing at airport was simulated.

On landing, the aircraft was shifted to isolated bay away from main terminal. The quick reaction team of INS Dega and CISF were immediately deployed till the arrival of NSG and MARCOs.

The State government and the Aerodrome Committee were alerted for implementation of contingency plan.

The aircraft was rescued by the NSG team and MARCOs with hijackers having been taken into custody and subsequently mass casualty evacuation was carried out by concerned agencies.