Captain Devi Sharan, the pilot of the hijacked IC 814, shared a gripping account of his experience during a recent interview. He revealed that he was prepared to crash the plane in Lahore due to critically low fuel levels.
In December 1999, the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 shocked the nation as terrorists commandeered the aircraft en route from Kathmandu to Delhi. The plane was rerouted to multiple destinations, including Lahore and Amritsar, before ultimately landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Captain Sharan described the dire circumstances he faced when he was forced to consider crashing the plane in Lahore, as fuel reserves dwindled to just one and a half minutes.
In an interview with CNN, Captain Devi Sharan recounted that the hijackers initially directed him to land in Lahore. However, when they were denied permission, he diverted the plane to Amritsar. The situation grew more desperate when the hijackers, determined not to perish in India, demanded that he take off from Amritsar despite the dangerously low fuel levels.
Upon reaching Lahore, Captain Sharan found the airport runway closed and the runway lights turned off. Facing no other option and with minimal fuel remaining, he prepared for a crash landing. "When I reached Lahore, everything was closed. The runway was shut, and I had no fuel left to return to Amritsar. I was left with only one option: to crash the plane," he said.
At the last moment, Sharan noticed people on the ground and delayed his crash landing. Fortunately, the Pakistani airport authorities, realizing the gravity of the situation, granted him clearance to land just in time. "Pakistani officials realized we were about to crash, so they quickly gave us runway clearance. With only one and a half minutes of fuel left, I managed to land safely," he added.
The ordeal continued even after landing. After refueling in Lahore, the hijackers demanded that the plane fly to the UAE, where they released 26 passengers and the body of a deceased passenger.
The hijacking crisis lasted nearly a week and involved intense negotiations between the hijackers and the Indian government. The standoff concluded when the Indian government agreed to release three terrorists—Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar—in exchange for the safe return of the remaining passengers and crew.
Captain Devi Sharan later authored Flight Into Fear, which inspired Anubhav Sinha’s Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, featuring Vijay Varma as Captain Devi Sharan.
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