New Delhi, Aug 20: Panic gripped Indira Gandhi International Airport here today after an "accidental" distress message of a hijack alarm emanated from a Srinagar-bound Indian Airlines plane with 53 people, including Union Minister Chaman Lal Gupta, on board.
An emergency was declared at the airport after the air traffic control (ATC) received a message code usually denoting hijack emergency as the plane IC-825 was taking off at around 1100 hours, airport sources said.
CISF personnel, responsible for security of the airport, fire tenders and ambulances immediately rushed to the tarmac to meet any eventuality and the aircraft was taken to an isolated spot, they said.

The drama continued for some time before it was found that the plane had no fault and the SOS message had apparently been sent out by the pilot by "mistake", they said.

However, all passengers were offloaded and the plane was checked, the sources said. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who rushed to the spot, said that an inquiry would be conducted to ascertain how the "false alarm" was triggered.

He said the alarm had emanated from the cockpit of the plane activating the emergency precautionary system.

"Now everything has been set right," he said.

Ruling out any action against the pilot for the moment, Rudy said the incident had demonstrated that the "system" is working efficiently.

IA sources said the passengers of the flight would be taken to Srinagar by another aircraft.

"It will be inquired whether the signal went off by mistake or otherwise," they said.

Bureau Report