Why did Jitendra Kumar Mohala, a 42-year-old chartered accountant and the son of a retired air commodore, go berserk while travelling on IndiGo’s Goa-Delhi flight on Sunday afternoon? Mohala had claimed to be an armed hijacker from a terror outfit and had subjected the flight crew to a torrent of terror talk. While investigators are grappling with the question, details emerging from the drama reveal that the four airhostesses on the flight acted with remarkable poise to prevent the situation from getting out of hand. While clearly shaken, the women—all petite and in their early 20s—did not let the 162 passengers know what was happening to avoid an outbreak of panic 34,000 feet above sea level. They just kept the pilot informed and the collective calm of the crew helped bring the plane down safely. The airline management and the airhostesses— Jyoti Chetri, Neha Gogia, Neha Chakaria and Achal Mehra—met the DGCA’s joint DG, A K Chopra, along with IB officials on Monday to give a report on the incident. The account is chilling. “Mohala claimed to be carrying weapons and said he had two associates on board. He said he was involved in the Kandahar hijack as well,” said a highly placed source present at the DGCA briefing. Sources claimed Mohala—who,contrary to earlier reports, wasn’t drunk— started behaving strangely while the plane had begun taxiing in Goa. He reportedly claimed to be different things—a DGCA official, a sky marshal, a pilot—but nothing was as scary as his claim that he was a hijacker. “He claimed to belong to a terror group called Maula and told an airhostess that he was carrying a pouch of infected needles that, if pricked, could sedate people. He also tried to reach out to one crew member’s neck and pointed to a nerve that when cut, could make people bleed to death.” said sources.
Mohala in judicial custody
Mohala has been remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody. He has been booked under sections 336 (endangering life and personal safety of others) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, as well as the Suppression of Unlawful Act Against Safety Of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, which is non-bailable. The other two persons detained along with Mohala—Sameer Uppal and Harmeet Anand—were released by Sunday late evening after questioning because there was nothing to suggest that they were active participants in the incident. Sources said, during the flight, the chartered accountant made a dash to the front end of the aircraft where airhostesses were seated. “The crew got very scared but at the last minute, Mohala went inside the lavatory and locked himself there for some time. He went to the toilet many times. He also kept changing his seat during the flight,” said sources. IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh commended the airhostesses’ conduct. “The challenge for them was to keep each other informed of what was going on without spreading panic among passengers. They, along with the pilot, did an amazing job of keeping calm while assuming all along that the unruly passenger could be armed,” Ghosh said. The flight’s commander, captain Amit Singh, also played safe. At 5.15 pm, he told Delhi ATC on common frequency that an unruly passenger was creating ruckus on the plane while asking for priority landing. Suspecting something was wrong, the alert ATC official left this plane’s frequency on so that they could hear what’s transpiring in the cockpit. “This way, the ATC heard Captain Singh’s conversation with the four airhostesses and thought they could have a hijack situation. Then the pilot asked for a discreet frequency as all planes use common frequency on final approach to hear what’s going on in the sky and ground around them. This collective approach of the airhostesses, pilot and ATC ensured no one— passengers and other aircraft—knew about the unfolding midair terror drama,” said sources.
