'Flight hijack' tweet lands a Spice Jet passenger in jail
NEW DELHI: Riled over his flight delay, a 29-year-old took to Twitter to vent his ire by posting a message saying the Spice Jet flight in which he was flying to India from Dubai was hijacked. He didn't forget to tag Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. He was soon rewarded for his mistake, which was, apparently, exacerbated by his lack of fluency in writing English. He was offloaded from the flight and subsequently arrested by the police.
The youth has been identified as Moti Singh Rathore. The incident took place on January 25. Rathore was onboard a Spice Jet flight from Dubai to Jaipur which was diverted to Delhi due to inclement weather.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Indira Gandhi International Airport) Ravi Kumar Singh said the Rathore landed at Delhi Airport by flight no SG 58 at 9.45 am on Wednesday and after getting all clearance the flight was supposed to depart for Jaipur at 1.40 pm. Around 1.20 pm, Rathore tweeted that the flight has been hijacked.
"Spice Jet Flight SG 58 Dubai to Jaipur high jacked," he tweeted tagging Scindia thereby creating a flutter.
Rathore posted a purported video of some passengers arguing with the Spice Jet Airlines crew, possibly due to the delay.
However, as if having realised his mistake, he again took to Twitter to apologise. He said his English is "weak" and he was furious over the delay.
"I apologise that I have mistakenly used high jacked word," Rathore added.
However, he was offloaded from the flight. The flight took off after all the checks.
"The passenger was handed over to local police for further legal action," the DCP said.
Rathore was booked under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 505(1)(b) (Statements conducing to public mischief) and 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication).