Indian Airlines Flight 421
On 24 August 1984, seven members of the banned All India Sikh Students Federation hijacked an Indian Airlines jetliner Indian Airlines Flight 421 (IATA No.: IC421), a Boeing 737-2A8, on a domestic flight from the Delhi-Palam Airport to Srinagar Airport with 74 people on board and demanded to be flown to the United States. The plane travelled to Lahore, then to Karachi and finally to Dubai, where the defence minister of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum negotiated the release of the passengers and the surrender of all hijackers to UAE authorities.
An Indian Airlines Boeing 737-200, similar to the aircraft involved in the hijack | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | 24 August 1984 |
| Summary | Terrorist hijacking |
| Site | Dubai Airport, UAE 25°15′10″N 055°21′52″E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-2A8 |
| Operator | Indian Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | IC421 |
| Registration | VT-EFK |
| Flight origin | Palam Airport |
| 1st stopover | Lahore Airport |
| 2nd stopover | Karachi Airport |
| Last stopover | Dubai Airport |
| Destination | Srinagar Airport |
| Occupants | 74 (including the hijackers) |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Survivors | 74 |
It was related to the secessionist insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab. The Khalistan movement was a separatist movement in Indian Punjab and UK where a small portion of the Sikh community openly asked for a different country for Sikh people (Khalistan). The hijackers were subsequently extradited by UAE authorities to India, who handed over the pistol recovered from the hijackers.
Indian civil servant K. Subrahmanyam was on board an Indian Airlines flight (IC 421) on 24 August 1984 when the plane was hijacked. The arrested hijackers later claimed in court that it was Subrahmanyam who "planned the entire hijacking to examine nuclear installations in Pakistan."
IC 421 hijacking was mentioned in the book IA's Terror Trail, written by Anil Sharma. This hijacking was also an important part of the story of 2021 Hindi film Bell Bottom. Indian Airlines, India's sole domestic airline up to 1993, was hijacked 16 times, from 1971 to 1999.