A frequent flyer on a Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight has confessed to planting a threatening note in a toilet that set off a hijack alarm. A Mumbai-based jeweller from Gujarat's Amreli district, the passenger is believed to be obsessed with an air-hostess and attempted to gain her attention. Sources said the last time he flew, he carried a cockroach and pretended to find it in his meal. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has identified the offender as Salla Birju.
He has been detained after it was established that he was the only one to visit the toilet before the note was found by an air hostess. Raju said, “A man Salla Birju has confessed that he had kept the threatening note to destabilise operations in the Jet Aiways flight.” He added that he has advised the airline to “put him on the no-fly list immediately apart from other criminal action.” If the move is taken, Birju could be the first passenger to make it to the no-fly list after new rules were enforced in September to allow banning of unruly passengers from periods ranging from three months to over two years.
Jet Airways flight 9W339 took off a little before 3 pm, from Mumbai, on Monday, and was soon diverted to Ahmedabad where it landed 45 minutes later. The airline issued a statement saying the diversion was made after the “declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat.” The printed letter in the bathroom in Urdu and English, suggested that there was a bomb in the cargo hold of the plane. It read that the flight “is covered by hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK”. The air hostess who found the note took it to the the pilot who reportedly pressed the hijack button, alerting the Ahmedabad airport to a threat.
All 122 passengers of the plane, including seven crew members, were screened and their bags checked once they touched Ahmedabad. All were questioned for hours and photographed. The flight took off for Delhi six hours later, with Air marshals on board.
