INS Dega conducts anti-hijack mock exercise

Visakhapatnam: An anti-hijack mock exercise was conducted at Visakhapatnam Airport by INS Dega. It was conducted with a mock situation created and involved actions by various agencies including Marine Commandos, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Airport Authority of India and the state government agencies.

The objective of the exercise carried out on Wednesday was to test the efficacy of the contingency plan and procedures to deal with hijack threats by the stakeholders.

An Indian Naval Dornier aircraft was utilised to simulate a mock situation for initiating coordinated actions by the stakeholders from the navy, the airport and other central and state agencies during the exercise. Upon its completion, a debrief was conducted and standard operating procedures were revalidated to effectively deal with future contingencies.

With an aim to test the efficiency of the airport's contingency plan and to familiarise all agencies with their respective responsibilities in a hijack situation, the anti-hijack mock drill is conducted at every Indian airport annually as mandated by the national civil aviation security programme.