Vidyut Jamwal starrer IB71 movie has released on the Disney-Hotstar OTT platform in India. The film is based on the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship plane in 1971. Sankalp Reddy directed movie released in theatres on May 12, 2023 followed by the OTT release on July 7, 2023. The film spotlights a real-life secret mission undertaken by the Indian Intelligence Bureau during the 1971 war and has received a rave response from the social media users. While the IB played a big role in the incident, the backbone of the purported mission was a decommissioned Ganga plane.


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The "Ganga" was a retired Fokker F27 Friendship plane operated by the Indian Airlines, which was a division of Air India Limited. The airline focused primarily on domestic routes, and certain international routes to Asia and Middle-East. In 2005, the airline was rebranded as "Indian" and was later merged with Air India. The airline inducted a variety of aircraft, including the Fokker F27, Boeing 737/ 320, Airbus A300, Vickers Viscounts among many other planes.  


Hijacking Of Indian Airlines Flight


As per reports, the Fokker F27 Friendship plane was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet and was withdrawn from services a long back. However, it was re-inducted days before the hijacking, that led to the theories of involvement of Indian intelligence in getting the plane hijacked. 


The incident took place on January 30, 1971, when an Indian Airlines domestic Fokker F27, also named "Ganga", was scheduled to fly from Srinagar Airport to the Jammu-Satwari Airport. The plane was hijacked by two Kashmiri separatists and was flown to the Lahore Airport in Pakistan, where the plane was later burnt.


While all the passengers and the crew were released, India retaliated by closing down the Indian airspace for the Pakistani aircraft. It is being said that the ban helped India win the 1971 Indo-Pak war that led to the formation of Bangladesh in December 1971, formerly called the East Pakistan, hence becoming a turning point in India-Pakistan relations.



Fokker F27 Friendship Plane


The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner made by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Developed during the early 1950s, it was widely used by airlines across the globe for carrying passengers and was also one of the most successful European airliners of its era. The plane made its first flight in 1955, and is still in service, although in a limited numbers. 


The plane had a passenger capacity of about 50 people and a range of around 2,600 km in a single tank. The plane could cruise at a speed of 460 km/h, which almost half the speed of modern day jetliners. It had an empty weight of 11,204 kg and max takeoff weight of 19,773 kg. The plane was powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart Mk.532-7 two-stage centrifugal compressor turboprop, which made it vibration free, as compared to rival planes.


History Of Crashes In Indian Subcontinent


The Fokker 27 had a terrible history of air safety and many planes crashed over the years. However, the air safety record was even more disastrous in the Indian sub continent, with airlines of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh flying the plane. Here's a few incidents resulting in deaths of all the passengers and crew:


1) 21 April 1969: Indian Airlines flight crashed while crossing Bangladesh airspace on its flight from Agartala to Calcutta, killing all 44 people on board


2) 6 August 1970: Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 plane crashed after take-off from Islamabad, killing all 30 people on board


3) 5 August 1984: Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27-600 crashed in Dhaka with a total death toll of 49 people, deadliest aviation disaster in the history of Bangladesh


4) 25 August 1989: Pakistan International Airlines F27 carrying 54 people disappeared after leaving Gilgit and was never found


5) 10 July 2006: Pakistan International Airlines Flight crashed a few minutes after take-off from Multan airport, killing all 45 people.