NEW DELHI, India -- A Boeing 737 jetliner reportedly carrying 54 people was hijacked Wednesday night on a domestic flight from Bombay and landed in New Delhi, India's civil aviation minister said Thursday.
National security force commandos surrounded the plane and the pilot was in communication with air traffic controllers in New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav said. The plane was parked at an isolated area of Indira Gandhi International Airport.
All 54 passengers and crew were unharmed but remained on board the jet, a private Indian television subsidiary of Star News said.
There was no word on the number of hijackers.
Yadav said authorities received an anonymous call after the plane departed Bombay saying the plane had been hijacked after its departure.
The pilot contacted air traffic controllers in New Delhi while the plane was flying over Ahmadabad, north of Bombay, he said.
The Times of India said it received a distress call from a passenger on board the hijacked flight.
The jet belonged to Alliance Air, a domestic subsidiary of Indian Airlines.
India has been on alert since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, in which hijackers seized jetliners and struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspected Islamic militants exploded a car bomb near the entrance to India's disputed Kashmir state legislature on Monday, then opened fire on security forces inside, killing 40 people and wounding dozens of others. A Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility.
On Dec. 24, 1999, five hijackers seized an Indian Airlines flight carrying 178 passengers and 11 crew members after it left Nepal. The captors killed one passenger and released others early in the hijacking. The hijackers left the plane in Afghanistan with 155 hostages on board on Dec. 31 after India agreed to release three prisoners.
