S Jaishankar Reflects on 1984 Plane Hijacking, Links to Netflix's 'IC 814'

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recounts his personal connection to a 1984 plane hijacking while discussing Netflix's 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack'. Jaishankar revealed his father was a passenger on the hijacked flight and that he himself was part of the team managing the crisis.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday shared a personal connection with the Netflix web series 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack'. During an interaction with the Indian community in Geneva, he revealed that his father was a passenger on an aircraft hijacked in 1984, an incident he played a role in managing.

'I haven't seen the film yet, so I can't comment. But in 1984, a hijack occurred, and I was part of the team dealing with it as a young officer. To my surprise, my father was on that flight,' Jaishankar recalled. The flight landed in Dubai without casualties, though the situation was perilous.

Jaishankar described the dual role he played during the crisis: an official handling the hijack and a family member pressing the government for action. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court saw the withdrawal of a public interest litigation seeking a ban on 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack' after Netflix added disclaimers about the terrorists' real names.

(With inputs from agencies.)