Man talks about hijacking flight before take-off, arrested

The 23-year-old accused is from Delhi. Representation pic

The Sahar police have taken a 23-year-old man into custody for allegedly speaking on the phone about "hijacking" a flight while he was seated in another aircraft, waiting for it to take off. The man was travelling from Mumbai to New Delhi via a Vistara flight when a cabin crew member, Neha Soni, heard him speaking on his cell phone about hijacking an Ahmedabad flight, around 6.30 pm on Thursday.

Soni, the complainant, told the police that the flight was scheduled to leave for Delhi at 7 pm. "Most passengers were in their seats and the pilot was preparing for take-off. I was assisting the passengers when I heard the man sitting on 27E (seat) speaking loudly over the phone. He claimed that he is about to board an Ahmedabad flight and said ‘planning has been finalised'. He asked the person on call to contact him if there is any difficulty as he had all access," Soni said in her statement to the police. Sanjay Govilkar, senior inspector, Sahar police station, said, "Preliminary investigations revealed that the man is from Delhi and has some mental health issues."