Mumbai jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, responsible for a hijack scare at a Jet Airways flight last year, has become the first man to be put on the no-fly list. The first of its kind in India, the no-fly list will have two components—passengers banned for period varying from three months to more than two years based on level of unruly behaviour; and those persons perceived as ‘national security risk’ by ministry of home affairs.
In September 2017, a Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight was forced to make an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport on Sunday after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the washroom. The note was reportedly placed there by Salla.
Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45am. The printed note, in Urdu and English, said the flight had 12 hijackers on board and a bomb in the cargo area and should be flown straight to PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir). The bomb disposal squad and the local police conducted a thorough search but found no explosive substance.