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When the captain would play host to the hijacker
The Hindu ^ | New Delhi, Oct. 13 | PTI

Posted on 10/14/2006 1:06:10 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick

They will be meeting after twenty-five long years but it will not take long for Captain Umesh Saxena to recognize Peter. After all, it was he who had hijacked the Air India aircraft from Mahe in Seychelles and demanded that the flight be taken to Durban in South Africa.

But for Peter Duffy, who was among the 48 mercenaries who on November 25, 1981 hijacked the Air India flight 224 from Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), it would be fulfilment of a promise that he had made to the captain - that he would see the him again.

"I am going to ask him point blank", said Capt. Saxena, "whether they intended to blow up the aircraft. I had heard them talking to this effect saying that it (blowing up) would destroy all evidence", he said. And, "we will recall so many things," Capt.Saxena told PTI.

The Air India's flight from Rhodesia was on way to Mumbai, with 65 passengers and 13 crew members and was hijacked when it landed for refuelling at Mahe. The 43-strong team of mercenaries carrying an assortment of weapons demanded that the flight to be taken to Durban where the nightmare of the crew and the passengers ended after prolonged negotiations.

The flight left for India and reached Mumbai on November 28 with no harm done to either the passengers or the crew.

Peter Duffy, now a photographer, actor, culinary expert and a pilot too, would spend a day with Capt. Saxena in Mumbai tomorrow before leaving for Durban the same night. He would present the Captain a gift, a book on the hijack of the flight written by Mike Hoare, who had led the team of mercenaries that had stormed the flight at Mahe.

"It would be great to meet Peter. How can I forget him? A young man who did all the talking on behalf of the hijackers", Capt. Saxena said.

Peter, along with others in the team of hijackers was sentenced to five years imprisonment in Durban but released after 21 months. He took to photography and worked with Sunday Tribune and The Independent, learnt Karate and also acted in a film. After his retirement from the newspaper he was working with, Peter decided to try and fulfill his promise to meet the captain.

Capt. Saxena recalled how Peter Duffy took over from the team leader Mike Hoare once the mercenaries - all 43 of them - stormed the aircraft with the body of one of the mercenaries. "Can you fly the aircraft to Rhodesia?", Peter, talking for the hijackers had asked and settled on the flight to be taken to Durban.

As the hijackers left the plane, Peter came to me and said "Thank you and see you again", Capt. Saxena said and also recalled that he told Peter that he would indeed like to meet him again although "not in similar circumstances".

Peter's meeting with the captain of the flight he had hijacked became possible thanks to a journalist friend of his in Durban who sought the assistance of an Indian journalist in Delhi to locate the captain.

The mercenaries, disguised as tourists, who were in Seychelles on a coup mission, began firing at the security personnel on being challenged and once they realized that they were in the danger of being overpowered, stormed the Air India aircraft that had just landed.

Hoare and his mercenaries were tried on their return to South Africa for offences under Civil Aviation Offences Act. Hoare was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment, Peter Duffy and a few others to five years.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airlines; hijack; hoare; india; rhodesia; southafrica; terrorism

1 posted on 10/14/2006 1:06:11 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
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To: CarrotAndStick
From mercenary/terrorist to photojournalist. Seems like a natural enough transition for this day and age.
2 posted on 10/14/2006 6:00:24 AM PDT by Colorado Doug
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