Recalling PK Flight 554 Hijacking

On the Twenty Fifth of May 1998, a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 aircraft was hijacked just after it had taken off from Gwadar Airport, by three armed hijackers. The aircraft which carried thirty three passengers onboard along with 5 crew members were held hostage at gun point by the three armed men who forcefully demanded the place fly all the way into India, after long hours of unsuccessful negotiations Pakistani special force SSG stormed the plane, this incident turned out to be one of the most bizarre hijacking to ever occur. 

Hijacking

The whole incident began as the aircraft was airborne just having taken , carrying around thirty three passengers with 5 crew members onboard whose destination was towards. Three men suddenly arose armed with small arms and explosives at precisely 5:35pm. The hijackers entered the cockpit and forced the pilot to fly towards India demanding they reach new Delhi, but the pilot refused to head towards Delhi telling the hijackers about the lack of enough fuel to fly that much distance. Meanwhile the Pakistan Air Force on alert had traced the pilot’s communication and dispatched F-16s which soon intercepted the Fokker F27 and forced it to land in Hyderabad airport. 

Deceiving the Gunmen 

Before the landing in Hyderabad airport inside Pakistan the Hijackers had started to become more and more violent, hence the pilots tried to calm  down  the situation by deceiving them trying to give the impression that they were already in India. It seems the pilot was trying to think of a way out and during decent his message addressed Hyderabad Airport as Bhuj airport (Bhuki is in India). His decision led the hijackers to actually believe that they were in Bhuj, India, he chose that because he had heard the hijackers talking about maps of Bhuj. The airport general manager had gotten the gist of situation and responded by pretending that he was at Bhuj and waiting for the flight to land. This exchange of communication assured the hijackers that the plane had indeed crossed into India. Meanwhile as the landing happened the entire airport was sealed off by Pakistan Rangers and Police.

The Negotiations

The landing had taken place in Hyderabad airport late at night just after the airport manager switched off the lights and markings of Hyderabad. A little bit after the landing, the three hijackers released a flight engineer to negotiate with the "Indian" authorities to refuel the plane for onward journey to New Delhi, India's capital. Additionally food and water  was demanded. The negotiations lasted for hours after which an agreement was finally made for delivery of food and water. It was two senior officers of Pakistan police who volunteered to deliver it and according to sources they went in wearing Indian uniform safely reaching the plane unarmed.

While delivering the food/water the two police officers tried as best at they could to speak in Hindi with each other which further falsely assured the three hijackers that the officers are Indians, as the hijackers had thought that they landed in an Indian airport. Further more the police officers, in order to buy time and earn the good will of the three men, told the hijackers in a friendly manner that people from the Pakistani embassy had been summoned and will talk to them. In between the officers also convinced the hijackers that they should not hurt the passengers and to let the women and children go. While the officers stayed in the plane distracting  the three hijackers, Special forces SSG Commandos slowly closed in on Fokker F27- Flight 554

SSG Assault

As the two police officers on board negotiated  with the hijackers in Hindi language they had managed to convince them to let the women and children off guaranteeing the hijackers safety and enough fuel for flight to Delhi. Meanwhile just as the women and children were getting off the plane, those previous SSG operatives got into positions ready  infiltrate giving the mission code “Commando Operation”.

After being given the go ahead the SSG operatives stormed the plane, forcing an entry from the front and the back doors of the plane. As they stormed inside, the already two present police officers suddenly shouted at hijackers to distract them. Under shock and confusion nee of the hijackers tried to shoot at the officers but missed. Meanwhile another hijacker attempted to shoot at the SSG operatives inside but was quickly pinned down before he could even shoot. The very last remaining hijacker attempted to blow himself using his suicide vest up but was also detained immediately by another SSG operative that had infiltrated from the very front. The whole operation is said to have lasted less than two minutes and all three hijackers were arrested by the SSG alive while no hostages rescued. Later handed over to Police. To further rub salt on their wounds just as the last hijacker was detained on the ground one of the police officers from earlier walked up to him, smiled and told him “Welcome to Pakistan”.