The hijacking happened very quickly in the flight timeline.
Flight IC 814 departed from Kathmandu on 24 December 1999 at 16:00 Indian Standard Time.
By 16:39, the plane had entered Indian airspace.
Itspresence in Indian airspace is importantlater in the timeline.
By 16:53, the pilot announced the hijacking.
Only three minutes later, at 16:56 IST, the Dehli Air Traffic Control was informed about the situation.
Custom image by Yailin Chacon
The calm of IC 814 and serving drinks after takeoff were shattered instantly.
There was a high level of tension among passengers while the hijackers seized control.
IC 814 wasone of several hijackingsthat occurred on Indian planesfrom the 1970s to the 1990s (India Today).
However, the motives for IC 814 were more extreme.
However, the Indian authorities refused, demanding all those on the plane be released.
The prisoners in question were Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh, and Mushtaq Zargar.
This was due to the progressive violence on board as the hijackers sought to prove their ruthlessness.
The delicate matter of airspace would be one of the key reasons negotiations were delayed.
The hijackers eventually let the captain land at Amritsar, where the captain requested immediate refueling.
The hijackers stabbed two passengers, frustrated at delays.
Several were placed near the front with their hands bound.
Other stops on the planes journey were Lahore at 20:01 and Dubai at 01:32 the following day.
27 passengers were released in Dubai in a trade for fuel.
This included a mortally wounded passenger who would be the one fatality of the hijacking.
Its final destination was Kandahar at 08:33 IST.
Thehostage crisis wouldnt end until 31 December, when the trade was finalized.
What Happened To IC 814’s Passengers: Did Any Die?
The Hostage Situation Was Fraught With Tension And Violence
There were 179 passengers on board IC 814.
There were17 nonfatal injuries and one fatality.
The passengers were treated horrendously throughout, at one point going 26 hours without eating (The Independent).
We felt betrayed, scared for our lives.
However, the Taliban did not arrest the hijackers, despite the Indian government explicitly conveying this expectation.
Instead, the Taliban drove them to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and gave them 10 hours to leave the country.
Subsequent investigations have revealed the involvement of both the released terrorists and the hijackers in several terrorist attacks.
The Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking of 1999 remains one of the most infamous acts of terrorism.
Its chaos resulted in increasing violence.
One of the hijackers, Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, was gunned down in Karachi in 2022.
