1976 Indian Airlines hijacking
Boeing 737-200 · Aircraft hijacking
From Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) to Santacruz Airport, Bombay, India
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Occurrence
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 83
- Survivors
- 83
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Boeing 737-200
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- Unknown
- Operator
- Indian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)To Santacruz Airport, Bombay, India
Approximate · Estimated position: Indira Gandhi International Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1976 Indian Airlines hijacking was a domestic passenger flight hijacking by a group of six terrorists on 10 September 1976. The flight was from Palam Airport, Delhi to Santacruz Airport, Mumbai. The terrorists were later identified to be Kashmiri separatists. Their names were Syed Abdul Hameed Dewani, Syed M Rafique, M. Ahsan Rathore, Abdul Rashid Malik, Ghulam Rasool, and Khawaja Ghulam Nabi Itoo.
Timeline
The original flight path was Delhi to Mumbai. Initially ordered to fly the plane to Libya, after knowing that there wasn't enough fuel for that journey, the leader of the terrorists told the pilot Captain B.N Reddy to take the flight to Karachi, Pakistan instead.
To refuel the plane, they landed in the CAA Lahore airport in Pakistan. All the passengers and crew on board were returned to India the next day, after diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan were re-established and Pakistan helped with the rescue operations.
The hijackers were tricked during breakfast on the plane. They were served colorless tranquilizers with water, leading to the apprehension of all six of the hijackers. Afterwards, the plane was sent back to India with 83 passengers on board.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1976 Indian Airlines hijacking” (revision 1374860066, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1976 Indian Airlines hijacking
- Revision
- 1374860066 · 2026-09-14 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q141485665
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1976 Indian Airlines hijacking" (page 84107223, revision 1374860066)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.