Indian Airlines Flight 421

The aircraft, VT-EFK, was delivered to Indian Airlines in 1977. In 1996, the aircraft was transferred to PAHC, before the last delivered to Aerolineas Argentinas in 1997. The aircraft was used two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17A, and was used as a setting for director Yash Chopra's film Silsila (1981). == Timeline ==

Indian Airlines Flight 421 took off from Palam Airport at New Delhi with 122 passengers, bound for Srinagar via Chandigarh and Jammu in the early hours of 24 August 1984. At Chandigarh 67 passengers disembarked and 31 joined the flight for Jammu and Srinagar. At 7:30AM, seven Sikh passengers - described as being in their twenties and wielding kirpans - stormed into the cockpit and took control of the flight from Captain V.K. Mehta. On taking the cockpit, the hijackers forced the pilot to fly the aircraft to Amritsar and circle above the Golden Temple - the central shrine of the Sikh faith which had been raided in June that year by the Indian Army in an anti-terrorist operation. After two circles above the Golden Temple, the hijackers ordered the aircraft's pilot to fly to Lahore, Pakistan. At Lahore the aircraft had to circle the city for nearly 80 minutes before it was finally allowed to land by the Pakistani authorities at 9:50 AM due to dangerously low fuel levels. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spoke with Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and requested him not to allow the aircraft to leave Lahore airport. The Indian government believed that since the hijackers were lightly armed, they could have very easily been neutralized by having special forces storm the aircraft. On meeting with Pakistani officials on the tarmac at Lahore, the hijackers demanded that the aircraft be re-fueled and flown to the United States. The Pakistanis agreed to refuel the aircraft, but advised that the aircraft lacked the range to fly to the Western Hemisphere. The hijackers allowed five passengers, including a three-member family, to leave the aircraft at Lahore. At 7 PM, one of the hijackers produced a revolver and used it to force Captain Mehta to take off from Lahore. Two British nationals on board the flight later recounted that Pakistani officials had handed a paper wrapped packet to the hijackers, and claimed that the revolver had been produced from this packet. All hijackers were later extradited to India. ==In popular culture==

This hijacking was an important part of the 2021 Indian film Bell Bottom. In this movie, the flight is fictionalized as IC 691 and operated by an Airbus A321-200. The film also depicts the hijacking as a confrontation between Indian intelligence and a Sikh separatists organization backed by Pakistani intelligence. == See also ==