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IB71 Movie: Meet Indian Airlines Fokker F27 Plane That Was Hijacked From Kashmir In 1971

July 8, 2023

Vidyut Jammwal starrer IB71 film has released in India on Disney-Hotstar OTT platform. The film is based on the hijacking of an Indian Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft in 1971. The Sankalp Reddy-directed film releases in theaters on May 12, 2023, followed by an OTT release on July 7, 2023. The film throws light on a real-life covert mission. It was done by the Indian Intelligence Bureau during the 1971 war and has received a lot of response from social media users. While the IB played a major role in the incident, the backbone of the alleged mission was a decommissioned Ganga aircraft.

“Ganga” was a retired Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft operated by Indian Airlines, a division of Air India Limited. The airline focused mainly on domestic routes and some international routes to Asia and the Middle-East. In 2005, the airline was rebranded as “Indian” and later merged with Air India. The airline carried a variety of aircraft, including Fokker F27s, Boeing 737/320s, Airbus A300s, Vickers Viscounts, among many others.

Hijacking of Indian Airlines plane

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As per reports, the Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet and was decommissioned long ago. However, it was re-incorporated a few days before the hijacking, leading to theories of Indian intelligence involvement in the hijacking.

The incident took place on January 30, 1971, when the domestic Fokker F27 of Indian Airlines, also known as “Ganga”, was about to take off from Srinagar airport to Jammu-Satwari airport. The plane was hijacked by two Kashmiri separatists and flown to Lahore airport in Pakistan, where the plane was later burnt.

While all passengers and crew were released, India retaliated by closing Indian airspace to Pakistani aircraft. It is said that the ban helped India win the Indo-Pak War of 1971 which led to the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971, formerly known as East Pakistan, hence it is an important landmark in Indo-Pak relations. The turning point has been made.

Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft

The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner built by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Developed in the early 1950s, it was widely used by airlines around the world to carry passengers and was one of the most successful European airliners of its era. The aircraft made its first flight in 1955, and is still in service today, although in limited numbers.

The aircraft had a passenger capacity of about 50 people and had a range of about 2,600 km in a single tank. The aircraft can fly at a speed of 460 km/h, which is about half the speed of modern jetliners. Its empty weight was 11,204 kg and maximum take-off weight was 19,773 kg. The aircraft was powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart Mk.532-7 two-stage centrifugal compressor turboprops, which made it vibration-free compared to rival aircraft.

History of accidents in the Indian subcontinent

The Fokker 27 had a poor history of air safety and several crashes over the years. However, the air safety record was even more disastrous in the Indian subcontinent, where airlines from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were flying the aircraft. Here are some of the incidents in which all passengers and crew died:

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

2) 6 August 1970: A Fokker F27 aircraft of Pakistan International Airlines crashed after taking off from Islamabad, killing all 30 people on board.

3) 5 August 1984: A Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27-600 crashed in Dhaka, killing a total of 49 people, making it the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Bangladesh.

4) 25 August 1989: Pakistan International Airlines F27 carrying 54 people went missing after taking off from Gilgit and was never found

5) July 10, 2006: A Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed minutes after take off from Multan airport, killing all 45 people on board.