Annoyed with flight delay, Jet Airways passenger tweets ‘hijack’ alert to Narendra Modi
Nitin Verma’s message on Twitter sent security forces into action, and he was deboarded at the Jaipur airport for questioning.
A Jet Airways passenger’s tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi crying “hijack” led to a frenzy at the Jaipur airport on Thursday. Annoyed by the three-hour delay of his Mumbai-Delhi flight, which was subsequently diverted to Jaipur, Nitin Verma tweeted to Modi saying, “Sir, we have been in Jet Airways flight for the past 3 hrs, looks like hijacked, pl help 9W355 [sic]”.
The Prime Minister’s Office and Airports Authority of India immediately acted after Verma’s tweet. Security agencies and the Air Traffic Control were alerted, and checks were conducted at the airport. The Jet Airways team, however, responded to the 35-year-old’s tweet, clarifying that flight 9W 355 had been “delayed due to air traffic congestion in Delhi”.
Verma was deboarded once the plane reached Jaipur and questioned for three hours by the Central Industrial Security Force and police. Deputy Commissioner of Jaipur (East) Police Kunwar Rastradeep told The Times of India that a case of criminal intimidation had been registered against Verma and that he will be produced before a magistrate on Friday.
A Jet Airways spokesperson later said security protocol was followed after Verma’s tweet, according to NDTV. The flight had 176 people on board, including eight crew members.