Air India Sky Marshal Caught At Sri Lankan Airport With Loaded Gun, Delays Flight By 4 Hours

A slew of incidents of carrying firearms has been reported by the Colombo Airport authorities, but this is for the first time an Indian sky marshal has been arrested.

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In a one-off aviation incident, an Air India Sky Marshal was detained by the Bandaranaike International Airport's (BIA) security officers for carrying a loaded firearm. As per a Sri Lankan news website, ColomboPage, the sky marshal left the international flight without surrendering his firearm to the chief pilot of the plane. As per international safety norms, an air marshal is governed by the law to not exit the flight on an international land with their firearm. However, the marshal in the said Air India flight forgot to deposit the firearm to the captain of the flight. 

The report further states that the marshal was arrested when he was returning to board a Chennai-bound flight from the Colombo International Airport. The marshal was spotted carrying a loaded firearm by a security officer when he arrived at the transit passenger terminal. This resulted in a delay of four hours for the departure of the Chennai-bound Air India flight. 

The sky marshal of the Air India aircraft is an officer of the Special Task Force of India and was taken into custody by the Katunayake airport security officers. The security marshal was supposed to return back on the Air India Flight AI272, which was supposed to depart for Chennai, on 6 May, 2023 at 01.35 PM. However, the flight departed from the Katunayake Airport at 05.35 PM in the evening.

While, as per the rules, any person caught at the airport with a firearm should be presented to the court, high security chiefs and high commissions of the two countries made efforts to resolve this issue immediately. The marshal took the same flight on his way back to India. 

The report adds that several such incidents of carrying firearm have been reported at the Katunayake airport in the past months, however, most of them are related to the American and Russian nationals and all of them were brought to the court. However, this is for the first time an Indian has been arrested by the authorities.